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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated in an interview with CoinDesk that his prison sentence has been a positive factor for his business, rather than a hindrance, by solidifying trust with partners. CZ explained that once he clarifies to people that his conviction was for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and not for fraud, partners who understand the situation trust him even more than before. He conveyed that enduring this difficult period served as an opportunity to prove his character. He also admitted his past ignorance of U.S. regulations, adding that he should have learned sooner that U.S. law applies globally. Regarding his future, CZ made it clear he has no immediate intention of returning as Binance CEO. He described the role as time-consuming and demanding, stating that he is currently taking a break and believes his greatest contribution now is to help other entrepreneurs grow. He emphasized that he will focus on being an investor and advisor for the time being, noting that he is still energetic enough to accomplish many more things.

An international law enforcement effort, dubbed "Operation Endgame" and led by Europol with participation from private firms like Microsoft, has dismantled the infrastructure of three major malware families targeting cryptocurrency wallets and passwords: StealC, Amadey, and SocGholish. Authorities shut down 326 servers and 142 domains associated with the malware, which operated under a "cybercrime-as-a-service" model. They also froze €41 million (about $47 million) in crime-related cryptocurrency assets and recovered 27 million sets of login credentials leaked from infected devices. The operation is considered highly significant as it went beyond targeting individual threats to neutralize the entire supply and distribution chain of the malware.

The Rosen Law Firm, a U.S. firm specializing in investor lawsuits, is preparing a class-action lawsuit to recover losses for investors in Strategy (MSTR, STRF, STRC, STRK, STRD) securities, according to a Business Wire press release. The firm announced it is investigating whether Strategy published materially misleading business information that led to investor losses.

While Bitcoin futures have rebounded after falling as low as $58,995, downward pressure has also been evident in options for spot Bitcoin ETFs and MicroStrategy (MSTR), CNBC reported. Trading volume for options on BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has surged to roughly double its 30-day average. Of the $187 million in total premiums traded, $144 million was for put options. Similarly, put trading in MicroStrategy options has outpaced call trading, with investors buying puts while simultaneously selling calls. This suggests that investors are pricing the risk of a Bitcoin price decline into not only spot ETFs like IBIT but also into the stock of major corporate BTC holder MicroStrategy.

With bearish bets in the Bitcoin (BTC) options market becoming overheated, a lower-than-expected U.S. Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index for May could quickly reverse sentiment, CoinDesk reported. The one-week BTC options skew shows put option premiums are about 25 points higher than those for call options, indicating that investors are paying more to hedge against declines. A similar peak in put options occurred in early February, at which time BTC formed a short-term bottom just above $60,000. While the May Core PCE is forecast to rise 3.4% year-over-year, a lower actual figure would be seen as a sign of slowing inflation, weakening the case for further interest rate hikes, the analysis noted. In a related comment, former PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian said the key is how well the upcoming data reflects the current inflation trend. He suggested that since the figures do not account for the recent drop in oil prices, future inflationary pressures are likely to ease.

Crypto security firm PeckShield has reported that the official X (formerly Twitter) account for Gnosis appears to have been hacked. The firm urged users to cease all interaction with the account and to avoid clicking on any posted links.

South Korean exchange Upbit has announced that it will suspend deposits and withdrawals for tokens on the Chiliz chain due to a network hard fork. The suspension will affect CHZ, PSG, JUV, ACM, AFC, ATM, BAR, CITY, INTER, NAP, and SPURS, starting at 3:00 a.m. UTC on June 30.

The supply of Bitcoin currently held at a loss has reached an all-time high of 10.83 million BTC, Glassnode reported. This figure surpasses the levels seen at all previous bear market bottoms. The supply of BTC in loss, which stood at 9.8 million BTC in February, surpassed 10.7 million BTC this month. The last times the metric exceeded 10.5 million BTC were near the bear cycle lows of 2019 and 2020. As a result, the volume of coins held at a loss by long-term holders (LTH), defined as those holding for at least 155 days, has reached 5.58 million BTC. This is the second-largest amount in history, trailing only March 2020, when over 5.6 million BTC held by LTHs were at a loss.

A CoinShares survey of 261 asset management professionals across five European countries found that 52% of respondents in the United Kingdom believe their advisory firms are unaware of more than half of their clients' cryptocurrency holdings. This figure stood at 25% across all five countries surveyed, which also included France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. The survey also revealed that 61% of respondents work for companies that either restrict the handling of cryptocurrencies or lack internal guidelines on the matter. While 48% of respondents said they would actively recommend crypto if their company had clear support guidelines, only 1% would do so at firms with an explicit ban. When asked what would encourage them to increase crypto recommendations, respondents most frequently cited recognition of the asset class as mainstream by regulators (45%) and expanded access to exchange-traded products (ETPs) at 43%. In contrast, only 9% pointed to the need for educational materials for clients.

Crypto exchange Kraken is partnering with Maple Finance (MPL) to build an on-chain financing system for collateralized loans, The Block reported. The system will fund Kraken's over-the-counter (OTC) lending program, which allows institutional and high-net-worth clients to borrow USDC by collateralizing cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH. Under the arrangement, Maple will provide senior capital through a bankruptcy-remote special purpose vehicle (SPV). Kraken will manage loan origination, sales, and servicing, and will also provide junior capital, absorbing initial losses before Maple. This structure reduces Kraken's own capital burden while giving Maple investors access to a senior, overcollateralized lending product backed by BTC and ETH. Collateral balances and loan performance are expected to be verifiable on-chain in real-time.

Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Tezos (XTZ) starting at 11:00 a.m. UTC on June 29 due to a network upgrade.

The spot CVD chart analyzes the order book for the BTC/USDT spot pair. The top section shows the Volume Heatmap, and the bottom section shows the Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD). - The Volume Heatmap at the top tracks the volume of trades at specific price levels. The background color becomes brighter when the price remains in a certain range for an extended period or moves significantly. These brighter areas may act as potential support or resistance levels. - The Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) indicator at the bottom represents buy and sell orders categorized by size. As buy orders increase, the corresponding colored line rises. The yellow line represents orders between $100 and $1,000, and the brown line indicates large orders between $1 million and $10 million.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has partnered with Nomura Securities to offer a real-time foreign exchange settlement service for Japanese companies, with plans to launch as early as 2027. The collaboration aims to boost cross-border investment and trade by enabling the immediate processing of large-scale overseas transactions.

Lee Chan-jin, head of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), will hold a regular meeting with CEOs of virtual asset exchanges and other Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) on July 2 to discuss internal controls and self-regulation. According to Edaily, the conference will be attended by representatives from major won-market exchanges, coin-market exchanges, and custody firms. The agenda is also expected to cover the potential opening of the virtual asset market to corporate investors.

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, which has Chinese roots, has refuted a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleging it was a key channel for Iran-related fund transfers, stating it has "no commercial relationship with the Iranian government or sanctioned entities." CoinEx said that it has been on the Iranian government's blacklist since 2021, with its official domain blocked within the country, and has never had an office or operating entity in Iran. The exchange also claimed that, based on currently available information, transactions involving Alireza Derakhshan and Zedcex/Zanjani, mentioned in the report, occurred before the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions, and that it has never provided services to sanctioned parties. Regarding a transaction related to the Bybit hack, CoinEx explained that it assisted by blocking the account and freezing assets immediately after becoming aware of the incident and will conduct an internal review of the transaction mentioned in the report.

The supply of pUSD, the native stablecoin for the prediction platform Polymarket, has surpassed $500 million. This milestone is attributed to an influx of liquidity driven by a recent increase in user numbers and trading volume in the prediction market. The pUSD stablecoin is the key asset used for betting and trade settlements on the platform.

Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) has issued new guidelines requiring crypto influencers to obtain a special certification, Bloomberg reported. The rules, which apply to all financial influencers, also mandate the disclosure of paid advertisements and require licenses for asset recommendations. Financial firms will be held responsible for the information shared by influencers with whom they have marketing contracts. Companies that violate the regulations face penalties including written warnings, license revocation, and fines of up to 15 billion rupiah (around $920,000). The OJK explained that the measures are intended to increase financial literacy and protect consumers from misconduct.

With the grace period for the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation set to end on July 1, only 231 of over 1,200 crypto firms have so far secured the required licenses, Cointelegraph reported via X.

Noted Bitcoin skeptic Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University, stated on the BeInCrypto podcast that stablecoins are the only real-world use case to emerge from nearly 20 years of blockchain development since Bitcoin's inception. The economist, known as "Dr. Doom," pointed out that of the 20,000 ICOs that have taken place, 80% were scams from the start, and many projects are insubstantial, speculative investments based on belief. He further claimed that of the non-fraudulent projects, 70% have lost all their value, while even the surviving projects, including the top 10, have fallen 50% to 60% from their all-time highs. While Roubini acknowledged that stablecoins function as a means of payment and can be useful in countries with high inflation, he emphasized that as digitized fiat currencies, they carry the same risk of value dilution and do not provide yield or a hedge against currency risk.

According to CoinGlass data, an estimated $826.40 million in long positions will be liquidated across major centralized exchanges (CEX) if BTC falls below $60,163. Conversely, a break above $61,955 would trigger the liquidation of $94.49 million in short positions.

Japanese Bitcoin accumulation firm Remixpoint has stated that it may sell a portion of its BTC holdings to maximize corporate value. In a post on X, the company noted that while BTC temporarily fell below $60,000, its fundamental value—driven by limited supply, network robustness, institutional adoption, infrastructure expansion, and a growing number of market participants—remains unchanged. Remixpoint added that buying demand has been observed around the $59,000 to $60,000 level, suggesting the market is absorbing short-term sell-offs while seeking its next direction. "However, holding BTC is not the goal in itself," the company stated. It explained that it might sell some of its BTC based on a comprehensive assessment of price levels, market conditions, capital efficiency, investment opportunities, and funding needs, using the proceeds for other growth businesses and strategic capital allocation. According to Bitcoin Treasuries, Remixpoint currently holds 1,491 BTC.

As Bitcoin has fallen to around $61,700 ahead of its options expiry at 8:00 a.m. UTC on June 26, expectations that the price could be pulled toward the max pain level have faded, CoinDesk reported. The max pain price for this expiry is $72,000, significantly above the current price, with $10 billion in options contracts set to expire on Deribit. Max pain refers to the price at which option buyers incur the most losses while sellers reap the maximum profit, leading to a market hypothesis that sellers attempt to guide the spot price toward this level. CoinDesk noted that with the current BTC price so far from the max pain level, arguments that this hypothesis is meaningless are gaining traction. The outlet added that regardless of the theory, the event could still increase market volatility as monthly options are rolled over.

Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings is set to acquire local cryptocurrency exchange bitbank for 46.7 billion yen (around $294 million), Nikkei reported. The acquisition will proceed in stages, with SBI purchasing shares from individual shareholders, including the founder, this August. By the end of October, bitbank is scheduled to acquire the stakes currently held by its corporate shareholders, Mixi and Ceres. The move follows an announcement from SBI in May that it was considering making bitbank a subsidiary.

The South Korean government's procurement spending on virtual asset-related projects this year has already surpassed the total for all of last year, Etoday reported. An analysis of public tenders revealed that the allocated budget has reached 10.06 billion won ($7.2 million), exceeding the 9.6 billion won ($6.9 million) budgeted for the entirety of the previous year. The report noted a shift in demand, which was previously centered on crime-tracking tools for police and prosecutors. Spending has now expanded to include tax infrastructure, such as an integrated analysis system for South Korea's National Tax Service, seized asset management, and reporting and verification systems.

Cryptocurrency analyst Axel Adler Jr. has assessed that MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) has shifted from an aggressive BTC accumulation strategy to a defensive buying approach, but its risks are limited. He explained that while MSTR is down 78% from its peak, BTC has fallen 51%. Adler noted that although this is less than MSTR's 89% drop during the 2022 bear market, the current trend is similar. Recently, MicroStrategy has reduced the size of its BTC purchases, increased its dollar reserves, and became a net seller of BTC for the first time since 2022. Adler believes that given the company's dollar holdings, its structural risk is limited. However, he added that the biggest risk at present is BTC's failure to recover to MicroStrategy's average purchase price of $75,000 for an extended period. This could cause the MSTR premium to collapse and make further fundraising difficult. A key variable going forward, he said, will be whether the company transitions to directly selling BTC to cover preferred stock dividends and bond interest payments.