Latest news with #cryptoTreasury
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Shrugs Off Fed, Mideast War, but Derivatives Flash Caution
By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Bitcoin BTC remains stable around $105,000 after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, as expected. It hasn't traded below the psychological threshold of $100,000 since May 8, a full 42 days ago, even though the Israel-Iran conflict — now coming up for a week — would have been expected to weigh on risky investments, crypto among them. Alongside the interest-rate decision, the Fed also signaled slower economic growth, with GDP now expected to rise just 1.4% this year, down from 1.7%, and higher inflation. The much-watched dot plot showed policymakers see fewer rate cuts through 2027 than they did in March. What seems to be underpinning the largest cryptocurrency, and crypto markets in general, is the bitcoin treasury narrative. A notable rotation appears to be underway, with an ever growing number of companies committing to buying it as a treasury asset. The total number of known publicly traded holders has increased to 129, and when private companies and sovereign entities are included, the total has reached 235. That's an increase of 27 entities in just 30 days. Geopolitical tensions remain elevated in the Middle East. Israel said it launched airstrikes on nuclear-weapons related targets near Arak and Natanz and an Iranian missile attack scored a direct hit on the Soroka Hospital in southern Israel early this morning. In response, Israel's defense minister pledged further escalation of hostilities. Brent crude rose 1% to $77.45, its highest level since January, adding upward pressure on global energy and food prices. European stock indexes and U.S. equity index futures fell. While U.S. markets are closed today for the Juneteenth holiday, crypto markets remain open 24/7. Stay alert! Crypto June 20: Proof-of-stake blockchain BlackCoin (BLK) activates SegWit on mainnet, improving security and performance. Nodes must be upgraded to release v26.2.0 before this date. Wallets from 13.2 can be used in 26.2.x. June 25: ZIGChain (ZIG) mainnet will go live. June 30: CME Group will introduce spot-quoted futures, pending regulatory approval, allowing trading in bitcoin, ether and major U.S. equity indices with contracts holdable for up to five years. Macro June 19, 3 p.m.: Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses releases Q1 employment data. Unemployment Rate Prev. 6.4% June 20, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases May producer price inflation data. PPI MoM Prev. -0.8% PPI YoY Prev. 2% Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) June 23 (TBC): HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), post-market, $-0.12 Governance votes & calls Compound DAO is set to vote on a proposal to create the Compound Foundation, a non-profit to drive protocol growth and strategy. It calls for an 18-month plan and requests $9 million in COMP, Voting ends June 20. Arbitrum DAO is voting on a proposal to launch DRIP, an $80M incentives program targeting specific DeFi activity. Managed by a foundation-led committee, DRIP would reward users directly and allow the DAO to shut it down via vote. Voting ends June 20. ApeCoin DAO is voting on whether to sunset the decentralized autonomous organization and launch ApeCo, a new entity established by Yuga Labs with a mission to 'supercharge the APE ecosystem.' Voting ends June 24. Polkadot Community is voting on launching a non-custodial Polkadot branded payment card to 'to bridge the gap between digital assets in the Polkadot ecosystem and everyday spending.' Voting ends July 9. June 19, 9 a.m.: TON to host a Builders Call: Payments Edition. Unlocks June 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.83% of its circulating supply worth $17.34 million. July 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 1.3% of its circulating supply worth $120.99 million. July 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.67% of its circulating supply worth $11.23 million. Token Launches June 26: Coinbase to delist Helium Mobile (MOBILE), Render (RNDR), Ribbon Finance (RBN) and Synapse (SYN). The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation conference (formerly known as State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique event held in Washington on Sept. 10 that allows general counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to meet with public officials responsible for crypto legislation and regulatory oversight. Day 2 of 2: Canadian Blockchain Consortium's 2nd Annual Policy Summit (Ottawa) Day 2 of 2: SuperAI (Singapore) Day 1 of 3: BTC Prague 2025 June 24-26: Blockworks' Permissionless IV (New York) June 25-26: Bitcoin Policy Institute's Bitcoin Policy Summit 2025 (Washington) June 26: The Injective Summit (New York) June 26-27: Istanbul Blockchain Week June 30 to July 3: Ethereum Community Conference (Cannes, France) By Shaurya Malwa Lion Group Holding (LGHL), a Nasdaq-listed trading platform, secured a $600 million facility from ATW Partners to relaunch its crypto operations and build the world's largest HYPE treasury. The treasury will be anchored by Hyperliquid (HYPE), Solana (SOL) and Sui (SUI), with HYPE positioned as the company's primary reserve asset. SOL and SUI holdings will be custodied and staked with BitGo, which will also provide institutional-grade infrastructure and compliance oversight. LGHL is exploring secondary listings in Tokyo and Singapore to broaden investor access and create Asia's first listed HYPE treasury. The company views HYPE's decentralized sequencing, Solana's consumer traction, and Sui's composability as foundational to its shift toward execution-first DeFi protocols. The first $10.6 million tranche is expected to close before Saturday, with Chardan acting as sole placement agent for the raise. Open interest (OI) across major derivatives venues remains subdued after last week's flush, according to data from Velo. Total OI currently sits at $55.3 billion, well below the June 11 peak of $65.9 billion. The broad-based pullback points to persistent de-risking, even as markets stabilise near range highs. Deribit options flows remain front-loaded into the June 27 expiry. BTC's put/call ratio has ticked up to 1.13, led by renewed put demand at $100K–$110K strikes. Call interest remains heavy above $110K, but today's flows are more balanced than earlier in the week. ETH positioning skews more bullish, with a put/call ratio of 0.75 and call flows clustering at $2,600 and $2,800. Notably, today's top-traded instruments are concentrated in near-term strikes, pointing to short-dated, tactical interest. Velo data shows funding rates have flipped moderately positive for BTC and ETH, with +0.03% and +7.5%, respectively, on Binance, and similar prints across Bybit and OKX. Altcoin signals, however, are still fragmented. AVAX remains deeply negative on Binance (–19.05%), OKX (–18.60%) and Bybit (–16.62%), and bitcoin cash (BCH) also shows extreme short pressure (–24.39% on Bybit). HYPE funding, however, surged again to +38.67% on Bybit, though this reflects isolated speculation rather than a broad sentiment shift. Liquidation maps as provided by Coinglass show a dense band of leverage hugging BTC's current price, with notable zones stacked between $103K and $106K on Binance. This positioning suggests an elevated risk of local unwinds if the price breaks out. Still BTC has now traded within a 10% band for a record 42 days— one of the tightest volatility windows. With leverage compressed and clustered near price, any breakout could be sharp, but for now, conditions remain range-bound and fragile. BTC is up 0.16% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $105,032.28 (24hrs: +0.73%) ETH is up 0.4% at $2,540.03 (24hrs: +1.76%) CoinDesk 20 is unchanged at 3,014.06 (24hrs: +1.22%) Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 4 bps at 2.98% BTC funding rate is at 0.0052% (5.7179% annualized) on OKX DXY is unchanged at 98.95 Gold futures are down 0.58% at $3,388.20 Silver futures are down 1.43% at $36.38 Nikkei 225 closed down 1.02% at 38,488.34 Hang Seng closed down 1.99% at 23,237.74 FTSE is down 0.27% at 8,819.87 Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.64% at 5,233.39 DJIA closed on Wednesday down 0.10% at 42,171.66 S&P 500 closed unchanged at 5,980.87 Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.13% at 19,546.27 S&P/TSX Composite closed unchanged at 26,559.85 S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.25% at 2,622.24 U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is unchanged at 4.4% E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.36% at 5,960.00 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.43% at 21,626.25 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are down 0.37% at 42,034.00 BTC Dominance: 64.9 (+0.06%) Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02408 (0.04%) Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 879 EH/s Hashprice (spot): $52.87 Total Fees: 6.95 BTC / $729,711 CME Futures Open Interest: 154,500 BTC priced in gold: 30.9 oz BTC vs gold market cap: 8.75% After dropping below Monday's low and once again testing the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), ether has managed to reclaim Monday's range. While price action remains below the monthly open, a decisive reclaim of this key level would be a constructive signal, potentially paving the way for a move back toward Monday's highs. Bulls will want to see ether continue to close above the 200-day EMA in the case of further sideways price action. Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $369.03 (-1.64%), +0.7% at $371.61 in pre-market Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $295.29 (+16.32%), -14.16% at $253.47 Circle (CRCL): closed at $199.59 (+33.82%), -23.24% at $153.21 Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$26.12 (+3.57%) MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.49 (-1.23%), unchanged in pre-market Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $9.94 (+2.9%), -3.62% at $9.58 Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $11.9 (+0.08%), -1.01% at $11.78 CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.18 (+3.15%), -4.03% at $8.81 CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $18.7 (+0.11%) Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $31.94 (+11.95%), -9.58% at $28.88 Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $30.14 (+0.43%), -0.73% at $29.92 Spot BTC ETFs Daily net flows: $388.3 million Cumulative net flows: $46.63 billion Total BTC holdings ~1.22 million Spot ETH ETFs Daily net flows: $11.1 million Cumulative net flows: $3.91 billion Total ETH holdings ~3.97 million Source: Farside Investors PancakeSwap now leads crypto protocols based on 24-hour fees. Trump Faces Uproar From MAGA Base Over Possible Iran Strike (Reuters): Several key MAGA figures, including Steve Bannon, warned President Donald Trump that joining Israel's military effort could alienate his base and hurt Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. Circle Rockets After Stablecoin Bill Clears Senate, Pushes Post-IPO Rally to Over 500% (CoinDesk): Circle Internet (CRCL) stock surged 34% the day after the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, then rose further in after-hours trading to $211.87. DOJ Ties Kansas Bank Collapse to $225 Million 'Pig Butchering' Seizure (CoinDesk): The U.S. Justice Department traced $225 million in laundered USDT across OKX accounts tied to 434 victims, with seized assets potentially joining a federal crypto reserve established under Trump. Who's Selling Bitcoin Above $100K and Holding Back the Price Rally? (CoinDesk): Selling by short-term holders and miners is offsetting demand from ETFs, while long-term investors are rotating into other assets, keeping bitcoin range-bound despite favorable regulatory and inflow trends. Russian Ties Do Little for Iran While Boosting North Korea (Bloomberg): North Korea's troop deployments and arms transfers have secured battlefield upgrades and oil shipments from Russia, while Iran's drone support has yielded no comparable military or strategic return. Vladimir Putin's Investment Forum Fails to Attract Western Companies (Financial Times): The event's first day drew little high-level international or domestic business presence, with top allies sending second-tier envoys and Russia's wealthiest executives largely skipping the event. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
18-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Crypto Goes Corporate As A New Wave Of Public Companies Buy Bitcoin
So called crypto treasury companies, public firms that focus on acquiring digital assets like bitcoin, have become one of the most talked-about trends of 2025, and for good reason. These firms are raising money, merging with public shells and buying up tokens at breakneck speed turning themselves into vehicles for institutional and retail investors to gain exposure to digital assets without the hassle of operating in the murky netherworld of hackable crypto exchanges and digital wallets. The bitcoin treasury strategy pioneered by billionaire Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy, which now calls itself Strategy, remains dominant: more than 70 public companies around the world currently hold over $67 billion worth of the asset. But the sheer velocity of capital deployment for crypto treasuries at large is jaw-dropping. Since April, more than 30 public companies have announced plans to adopt similar strategies, targeting about $19 billion in capital raises, according to Elliot Chun of Architect Partners, a Palo Alto-based financial advisory firm. Just last week, the president's Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social social-media platform, announced it had secured $2.3 billion through a sale of its equity and convertible notes, marking one of the largest bitcoin treasury deals to date. And on Monday, billionaire Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump family's crypto ventures, revealed that his digital asset platform, Tron, will go public in the U.S. via a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment. As part of the deal, Tron will inject up to $210 million worth of its namesake token into the new company. The stocks of many of these unproven companies are soaring. Janover, a commercial property financing platform, has surged more than 5,300% since April, when it adopted a solana-focused strategy and rebranded as DeFi Development Corporation. Japan's hotel chain-turned-hodler MetaPlanet is up 472% year-to-date. Strategy, Michael Saylor's bitcoin-brimming firm, whose stock has gained 30% year-to-date, has soared 3,000% over the past five years. Most of these crypto Johnny-come-latelies are simply capitalizing on the investor hype and enthusiasm around crypto, now that the U.S. government appears to be in full embrace of the industry. Leverage is another driver of these stocks. Nearly all of these firms are adding crypto to their balance sheets after issuing convertible debt or equity similarly to the funding employed by Strategy. Leverage amplifies returns, so when bitcoin and other crypto prices are rising these stocks can produce bigger gains. Another factor is volatility, which hedge funds and options traders crave. These publicly-traded entities, stuffed with leveraged crypto, tend to gyrate wildly with the underlying asset and thus have high implied volatility. They are a speculative trader's dream. 'There are now a variety of investors that want to access [crypto] risk in a regulated fashion that fits within their investment mandate, and what these treasury companies are permitting is essentially creating lots of different vehicles to do that,' says Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at crypto asset manager Bitwise. But it's not just leverage and volatility that set these companies apart. Operating in public markets, rather than the murky world of crypto trading, has allowed them to scale rapidly. By listing on major exchanges, they gain access to deep institutional capital markets, allowing them to raise billions almost overnight and place outsized bets that private firms simply can't match. The ability to borrow cheaply and easily is a big part of the new wave of crypto treasury firms' allure, notes Park. Since traditional IPOs are costly, often require teams of lawyers and can take years, these Strategy-wannabes are instead tapping Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, known as SPACs, or finding existing public shells—micro-cap companies ripe for what is known as a reverse-merger. Take Twenty One Capital, backed by Tether and SoftBank, which is merging with the blank check affiliate of the Lutnick family's Cantor Fitzgerald at a $3.6 billion enterprise value. Less than two months ago the SPAC, Cantor Equity Partners, traded for $10.80. Today it trades at $35 despite the fact that the merger has not yet been completed. Or consider former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's Strive Asset Management, which in May announced a reverse merger with Asset Entities, an $86 million provider of content delivery solutions that had otherwise been languishing, to buy bitcoin. Since the announcement, Asset Entities' stock went from around $0.60 to as high as $13, and now trades for $5.42. "The price action that is currently being seen is before these transactions have been consummated, and that is a little bit unnerving,' adds Park who believes the good times will continue for these corporate early adopters. 'If you believe there's a wall of money coming to buy bitcoin and everyone's waiting on the sidelines to get their deals approved, well you better hope that you can do it first,' he says. Park believes that much of the excitement around these new corporate crypto treasuries stems from anticipated returns: 'What we haven't seen yet is an aggressive exploration of the left side of the balance sheet, which is actually generating worthwhile yield and return through the bitcoin that is being held in these operating companies.' Additionally, the crypto these companies are buying is effectively being taken off the market. This creates scarcity, which can magnify price swings and accelerate tokens' rise, potentially making these treasury strategies even more impactful from a return standpoint. Architect Partners' Chun is wary of the rapid balance sheet build up among the new digital asset buyers. 'This is financial engineering at its best,' he warns. 'Straight equity, PIPEs, convertible notes, ATMs—it's an MBA course on its own in every different structure for public equity one can think of.' Video game retailer GameStop is using more than $3 billion in convertible debt to finance its new bitcoin buying strategy. How will Game Stop, which has already spent $500 million on bitcoin, generate a return on its new treasury asset? No details are available yet, but as long as its stock gets carried higher with the prices of crypto, it may not matter to management of the one-time meme stock favorite. 'You have a whole lot of hype. You have a lot of people who aren't crypto-native, who are new to this and don't understand the intricacies of operating with this asset class,' says Chun. 'Being in crypto this long, you're always looking for the next thing that will take us down to our next winter. This definitely has the makings of something like that.'
