Ethereum Institutional launch draws support from across the Ethereum ecosystem

Spark CEO and co-founder Sam MacPherson said the significance lies less in the creation of another organization and more in what it signals about Ethereums evolution.  “The interesting signal isnt the organization itself,” he said. “Its that Ethereum is reaching a level of maturity where multiple independent groups are investing in its long-term development. As institutional participation grows, that kind of distributed stewardship will become increasingly important to supporting the next phase of the ecosystem.”  Asset management firm Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan echoed the development with praise, describing it as an example of Ethereums decentralized ecosystem adapting and strengthening over time.  “Its kind of awesome to watch a decentralized system heal itself and find ways to make progress,” Hougan wrote on X. “Inspiring stuff.”  Taken together, the reactions highlight a common theme: supporters see Ethereum Institutional not as a new center of power, but as another independent organization helping position Ethereum for its next phase of institutional growth.  Read more: Ethereum gets a new nonprofit focused on institutional adoption

07-02انڈسٹری

Ethereum at $1.5K: A tense stand-off forms, with ETH shorts under pressure

One look at the technicals is enough to show how bearish the market has turned. Nothing reflects this better than Ethereum.  According to CoinGlass data, $ETH closed Q2 down 25.28%, extending Q1s 29.26% drop. That puts the altcoin down nearly 50% in the first half of 2026, leaving holders who bought the top deep underwater.  The price structure tells the same story. As the chart below shows, $ETH has lost two major support levels. It first broke below $3,200 in mid-January, then lost the $2,000 level in early June.  Since then, the next base has formed around $1,500, where $ETH has been chopping sideways for more than four straight weeks.  Source: TradingView ($ETH/USDT)  Now, looking at Santiments latest report, it seems another breakdown could be on the cards.  According to the report, large Ethereum transfers to CEXs usually point to higher selloff risk, as whales tend to move coins onto exchanges before selling, hedging, or rebalancing. However, this time theres a catch.  Those $ETH inflows have been accompanied by strong stablecoin inflows, suggesting whales are also moving dry powder onto exchanges. That points to large players keeping capital ready, potentially to buy the dip rather than simply offload their $ETH.  And the data already hints at where that

07-02

‘Seems bearish’ – Circle slides 17% as Open USD enters the stablecoin race

Circle‘s stock, CRCL, dumped 17.5% to $62.63 on the 30th of June, marking the largest daily loss since March. It’s worth noting that in March, the stock fell 20% following a draft proposal to ban stablecoin yield on idle balance.  This raised concerns about likely limited $USDC adoption and the potential impact on the second-largest stablecoin issuers revenue outlook if the proposal were enacted. The dip on the 30th of June, however, was driven by a new rival in the stablecoin space.  Source: Circle stock price performance, TradingViewWill Open USD challenge Circle, Tethers dominance?  A consortium of 140 firms, including traditional cross-border payment players such as Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock and Google, launched a new stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD). According to the coalition, reserve earnings will be shared among partners, with zero transfer fees.  The target for OUSD? Enterprise treasury management and merchant payments. While not entirely focused on retail, the two segments are also eyed by both Tether‘s $USDT and Circle’s $USDC.  The new stablecoin will be offered later in the year, and Circles stock reaction suggested the market share dominance could be challenged. In fact, Matthew Sigel, head of digital research at asset manager VanEck, echoed this stance as the stock dumped on Tuesday.  $CRCL

07-02

Democrat backed by Ripple co-founders PAC wins Colorado primary

Manny Rutinel, a Democratic candidate running to represent Colorado‘s 8th congressional district, has won his party’s primary and will head to the November election after being supported by a crypto-aligned political action committee (PAC).  Early on Wednesday, Rutinel reported that Rutinel would be the Democratic nominee for Colorado‘s 8th district, having won with 61.7% of the vote against Shannon Bird’s 33.6%. Before the primary, the You Can Push Back Super PAC, backed by $3.5 million from Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen, reportedly spent $1 million on media to support Rutinels run.  The Colorado Democrat has a “strongly supports crypto” rating from the Coinbase-affiliated Stand With Crypto organization, based on his answers to questions about stablecoins, market structure and regulatory clarity. Coinbase is also a major contributor to the Fairshake PAC, which supports what it considers “pro-crypto” Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress.  Source: Stand With Crypto  On Tuesday, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen reported that the cryptocurrency industry had spent about $189 million so far on contributions to influence the 2026 US elections, largely through PACs. In what some experts say is the industry repeating its 2024 strategy, crypto-aligned groups are expected to continue spending to elect what they consider “pro-crypto” politicians.  Cointelegraph reached

07-02

Venice AI Valued at $1 Billion as Erik Voorhees Makes the Case for Private ChatGPT Rivals

In briefVenice AI raised $65 million at a $1 billion valuation in its first outside funding round.Founder Erik Voorhees said the company has surpassed 3 million users and become profitable.Voorhees argued AI surveillance—not model capability—is becoming the industrys defining challenge.  Venice AI has raised $65 million in its first outside funding round at a $1 billion valuation, founder Erik Voorhees announced Wednesday.  In a post on X, Voorhees—a cryptocurrency industry veteran who is best known as the founder of the ShapeShift exchange—said the funding validates Venices mission to build a private, uncensored alternative to mainstream AI like ChatGPT.  “This aversion to ubiquitous centralized surveillance and control is our philosophical foundation, and upon it Venice is growing rapidly,” Voorhees wrote. “In April, we hit 3 million users, and as of Q1, in an environment where AI firms were losing money while spying on you, Venice became profitable while choosing not to.”  Launched in May 2024, Venice AI is a privacy-focused alternative to mainstream AI chatbots that is designed to avoid storing users conversations on centralized company servers. The round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from North Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Archetype, Liquid2 Ventures, and Morgan Creek.  Venice AI native token ($VVV) rose following the funding

07-02

Bitcoin slips below $58K: Aggressive selling collides with weakening ETF demand

Bitcoin‘s latest sell-off intensified as bearish momentum continued building across Binance’s derivatives market. After repeatedly testing lower support levels, Bitcoin [$BTC] briefly slipped below $58,000 for the first time since September 2024.  This price drop was accompanied by a net taker volume of about -$330 million. This exceeded the -$311 million that was seen on the 25th of June.  The deeper negative reading shows sellers aggressively crossed the spread instead of waiting for buyers, overwhelming available bids and accelerating the decline.  Source: CryptoQuant  At the same time, the 7-day Open Interest trend remains positive. This indicates traders continue to add leverage based on their expectations of further declines in price.  Unless buyer absorption strengthens and aggressive selling subsides, leveraged bearish positioning could keep Bitcoin under sustained downside pressure.  Institutional distribution weakens Bitcoin demand  That aggressive sell-side pressure also coincided with a continued deterioration in institutional demand. Rather than absorbing the latest wave of selling, U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their distribution trend, shedding more than 100,000 $BTC during 2026 alone.  Source: CryptoQuant  Furthermore, the total number of $BTC sold off by ETF issuers has reached approximately 160,000 $BTC since they hit a high-water mark in their reserves in late October 2025. This represents losses totaling more than $11 billion.  Source:

07-02

Crypto Firms Spend $189M to Shape 2026 U.S. Elections

Crypto companies have contributed $189 million to influence the 2026 U.S. Election, making it the largest source of disclosed corporate spending. According to the Public Citizen report, the figure represents 37% of the $517 million in disclosed corporate election spending.  The report identified Ripple, Crypto.com, and Coinbase as the biggest contributors, with combined spending of $123.4 million. Ripple supplied $49.6 million, Crypto.com provided $38.6 million, and Coinbase added $35.2 million through the first quarter of 2026.  Fairshake and MAGA Inc. Capture $138.8M in Crypto Funding  Meanwhile, Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss contributed another $25.7 million. Their support raised total spending by the four major crypto groups to nearly $149 million.  Much of the industrys political funding flowed to two major super PACs. Fairshake received $82.6 million in crypto-related contributions, while Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. collected $56.2 million from companies connected to the sector.  Another political vehicle, the Cantor Fitzgerald-backed Fellowship PAC, received $10 million from the Wall Street firm, which also serves as a banking partner to stablecoin issuer Tether.  According to Public Citizen, these committees support or oppose candidates from either major party based on positions affecting the commercial interests of their corporate backers.  Additional contributions further expanded the sectors political reach. Blockchain.com supplied $5 million

07-02

Ethereum: Can ETH avoid its first-ever 3-quarter losing streak?

Ethereum [$ETH] has struggled in recent quarters, but what stands out is the divide among major players. Is $ETH simply going through a rough patch, or is it about to fall further for good?  Ethereums first 3-quarter losing streak  Per the quarterly returns chart from CoinGlass, $ETH closed Q4 2025 in red and has continued to fall through Q1 and Q2 2026. If this quarter ends the same way, this would be Ethereums first-ever run of three consecutive negative quarters.  Source: Coinglass  $ETH has seen big corrections before, but it has usually recovers within the next quarter or two. This time, the sell pressure has lasted longer, so its more concerning for bulls.  Traders will probably stay nervous until $ETH recovery becomes obvious.  Blackrock sells, Bitmine buys  Source: Arkham Intelligence  What makes this peculiar, is that big institutions are not moving in sync. BlackRock has reportedly deposited more Bitcoin [BTC] and $ETH to Coinbase Prime and has sold $ETH for seven straight trading days. Its last $ETH buy was around two weeks ago.  Source: Arkham Intelligence  But on the other side, Tom Lee‘s Bitmine is still buying aggressively. The firm added another 27,084 $ETH, worth about $42.5 million, taking its total holdings to 5.7 million $ETH. That is around 4.72%

07-02

Landmark First: Coinbase Brings Stablecoin Funding to Europes Regulated Mutual Funds

Coinbase Payments Integration Enables $EURC and $USDC Subscriptions for Regulated Funds  Institutional investors in Europe can now subscribe to and redeem holdings in regulated money market funds using stablecoins after Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) revealed on June 30 that it had connected its Payments infrastructure with Spiko, a European fintech firm delivering tokenized exposure to short-term U.S. Treasury investments through regulated money market funds.  This development represents what the companies characterize as the first UCITS funds in Europe to accept onchain funding through Euro Coin ($EURC) and USD Coin ($USDC), bringing near-instant settlement capabilities.  Coinbase stated:  “In a landmark first for Europe, investors can now enter and exit a regulated mutual fund (UCITS) near-instantly using stablecoins.”  The crypto exchange explained that the service operates on Base, a layer-2 blockchain network created by Coinbase, and supports Spikos EU T-Bills Money Market Fund and Spiko US T-Bills Money Market Fund. The firms indicated that the setup permits investors to shift between stablecoins and short-term U.S. Treasury investments continuously, including weekends and holidays.  Stablecoin Payments Aim to Reduce Settlement Delays for Institutional Treasury Operations  The companies said that the new payment model goes beyond tokenizing investment products by improving how investors access and exit regulated funds. Coinbase portrayed stablecoin-backed treasury management

07-02

Crypto Firms Lead $517 Million Corporate Surge Into 2026 Midterms

Cryptocurrency companies have become the single largest corporate political spenders in the United States, pouring $189 million into the 2026 midterm elections — more than they spent during the entire 2024 election cycle — according to a new report from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.  The crypto sector accounts for 37% of the $517 million that corporations have reported spending on the 2026 midterms so far, a figure that already surpasses the previous record of $461 million set during the full 2024 cycle.  Months remain before Election Day.  The report, authored by Public Citizen researcher Rick Claypool and published June 30, draws on Federal Election Commission data and finds that corporations have now spent nearly one third of the $1.58 billion in total corporate election spending since the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United decision — all in a single election cycle.  Corporate super PACs pioneered by crypto  At the center of the spending surge is a category the report calls “corporate supremacist super PACs” — political committees structured not around party affiliation, but around advancing the interests of specific industries. The strategy, pioneered by the crypto sector in 2024, is now being replicated across multiple industries.  The primary crypto-aligned vehicle, Fairshake, has received $82.6 million

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