Ethereum
This page lists the latest Ethereum news and market analysis. Browse articles, expert insights, and updates in this category on JrKripto. Stay informed with in-depth coverage of cryptocurrency trends and developments.
News
Ethereum News
Ethereum News
Browse all Ethereum related articles and news. The latest news, analysis, and insights on Ethereum.
Standard Chartered Launches Bitcoin and Ethereum Spot Trading in the UAE
Standard Chartered has started offering Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading to institutional clients in the United Arab Emirates. The bank has become the first global systemically important bank to provide this service in the country.The new service is offered through Standard Chartered’s unit in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Eligible institutional clients can directly trade Bitcoin and Ether.The bank also said it is the only global bank in the region offering digital asset spot trading to institutional clients. The service is built on Standard Chartered’s existing crypto custody infrastructure.Standard Chartered integrates Bitcoin and Ethereum into its FX systemStandard Chartered’s new service supports BTC/USD and ETH/USD trading pairs. Transactions are carried out through the bank’s existing electronic trading channels.As a result, institutional clients do not need to use a separate platform for crypto trading. Bitcoin and Ether have been integrated into the same FX interfaces clients already use for foreign exchange transactions.The product is also structured as deliverable spot trading rather than a derivative. Once a transaction is completed, clients directly receive the relevant digital asset.On the custody side, clients are given flexibility. Institutions can continue using their preferred custody provider.Alternatively, they can use Standard Chartered’s own digital asset custody service. The bank launched this custody offering in the UAE in September 2024.Institutional crypto infrastructure expands in the UAEThe new service is provided through Standard Chartered DIFC, which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. According to the bank, the UAE’s regulatory framework for digital assets is helping support broader institutional participation.Rola Abu Manneh, CEO of Standard Chartered UAE, Middle East and Pakistan, said the Bitcoin and Ether trading service expands the bank’s regulated digital asset offering.Abu Manneh also highlighted the integration of trading, custody and governance services within the same banking infrastructure. Through this structure, Standard Chartered aims to make access to crypto markets easier for institutional clients.The UAE has become an important hub for crypto companies and traditional financial institutions in recent years. Standard Chartered’s decision to expand spot trading services into the region further supports the development of this institutional infrastructure.Standard Chartered continues to expand its crypto servicesThe UAE is not Standard Chartered’s first market for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading. The bank began offering institutional clients spot BTC and ETH trading through its UK branch in July 2025.With that launch, Standard Chartered became the first global systemically important bank to offer deliverable Bitcoin and Ether spot trading. The UAE rollout now extends the existing service into the Middle East.The bank’s digital asset strategy is not limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum trading. Standard Chartered is also developing services in crypto custody, trading and tokenization.The company also remains active in digital asset infrastructure through ventures including Zodia Markets and Libeara. In July, Standard Chartered also launched a service with Circle that allows institutional clients to mint and redeem USDC.
Strategy, Strive and BitMine Buy 6,403 BTC and 53,501 ETH
Strategy, Strive and BitMine expanded their cryptocurrency reserves in the final week of August. Strategy and Strive purchased a combined 6,403 BTC, while BitMine added 53,501 ETH to its Ethereum portfolio.Strategy and Strive spent a total of $512.7 million on their Bitcoin purchases. BitMine’s latest ETH acquisition was worth approximately $134 million based on the price cited in its announcement.The latest disclosures show that publicly traded crypto treasury companies have returned to buying. Strategy also combined its purchase with common stock sales, cash management and STRC share repurchases.Strategy bought Bitcoin after a 10-week pauseAccording to figures disclosed by Strategy, the company purchased 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million between August 24 and August 30. The average purchase price was $80,318 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.The transaction marked Strategy’s first Bitcoin purchase in approximately 10 weeks. Its total holdings consequently increased to 845,050 BTC.The company’s Bitcoin portfolio has an aggregate purchase cost of $63.73 billion. Its average purchase price across the entire portfolio stands at $75,412 per Bitcoin.Strategy funded the purchase through sales of its Class A MSTR common stock. The company sold 4.53 million MSTR shares during the week, generating net proceeds of $602.8 million.It allocated $369.7 million of the proceeds to the Bitcoin purchase. Strategy also repurchased 1.56 million STRC preferred shares for $151.8 million.Another $50.7 million funded STRC dividend payments. The company transferred the remaining $30 million to its more flexible USD Cash account.Strategy’s USD Cash balance increased to $1.61 billion. Its USD Reserve, which supports preferred stock dividends and debt interest payments, remained at $5.1 billion.Strive purchased 1,800 BTCStrive announced that it purchased 1,800 BTC for $143 million during the same week. The average purchase price was $79,431 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.According to figures shared by Strive CEO Matt Cole, the company’s total Bitcoin holdings increased from 21,356 BTC to 23,156 BTC. Strive therefore expanded its reserves by approximately 8.4 percent in one week.The latest acquisition strengthened Strive’s position among the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders. The company ranks sixth in the Bitcoin Treasuries list with 23,156 BTC. Strategy and Strive added a combined 6,403 BTC to their reserves through their latest purchases. The two companies spent a total of $512.7 million on the transactions.BitMine added 53,501 ETHBitMine also expanded its Ethereum reserves during the same period. The company announced that it purchased 53,501 ETH last week.According to BitMine’s weekly update, its total holdings reached 5,901,112 ETH. This amount represents approximately 4.9 percent of Ethereum’s circulating supply.BitMine has now completed 98 percent of its goal to acquire 5 percent of the Ethereum supply. The company has also purchased ETH for 65 consecutive weeks since launching its treasury strategy in June 2025.BitMine currently uses 5.07 million ETH in staking systems. This amount represents approximately 86 percent of its total Ethereum reserves.The combined value of the company’s crypto assets, cash, marketable securities and other investments reached $15.6 billion. Its portfolio also includes 211 BTC and $541 million in cash and marketable securities.Share sales will also remain in focusThe three announcements show that corporate cryptocurrency purchases accelerated at the end of August. Strategy and Strive remain focused on Bitcoin, while BitMine continues accumulating Ethereum and generating staking income.However, the funding sources behind these purchases remain important. Common stock sales can create dilution for existing shareholders even when a company’s total crypto reserves grow.Investors may therefore need to look beyond the total amount of BTC or ETH held. Crypto assets per share, cash reserves and financing costs will also influence the performance of these companies.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Outline Two Separate Quantum Protection Plans
Bitcoin and Ethereum researchers have introduced separate proposals addressing the risks posed by quantum computers. Bitcoin’s SHRINCS system offers quantum-resistant signatures while limiting the loss of network capacity.The Ethereum draft would allow validators to deposit funds using quantum-resistant keys. The network could eventually stop accepting new validators using the existing BLS format.Both projects remain at an early stage. They require technical reviews and community support before either network can adopt them.SHRINCS proposed for Bitcoin transactionsBlockstream researchers Jonas Nick and Mikhail Kudinov published the SHRINCS proposal on August 27. The system aims to protect Bitcoin transactions against quantum attacks.Bitcoin uses digital signatures based on elliptic-curve cryptography to prove ownership. Users can spend their bitcoin without revealing their private keys.A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break this protection using Shor’s algorithm. An attacker could calculate a private key from a public key visible onchain.The attacker could then forge a signature and transfer the bitcoin to another address. The risk primarily concerns addresses whose public keys have already appeared on the blockchain.Older address formats and wallets that have previously made transactions fall into this category. The estimated 1.1 million BTC associated with Satoshi Nakamoto may also face this risk.SHRINCS limits the loss of network capacityLarge data requirements create one of the main problems for quantum-resistant signatures. Some systems standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology are dozens of times larger than current Bitcoin signatures.Larger signatures leave less room for transactions inside Bitcoin blocks. This reduces the number of transfers the network can process each second.Blockstream estimates Bitcoin could process about 6.5 transactions per second using only Schnorr signatures. That figure could fall to 0.36 transactions with the NIST-standardized SLH-DSA system.SHRINCS aims to keep capacity at approximately three transactions per second. Its signatures start at 324 bytes and grow by around 16 bytes with each key use.The proposal’s 580-byte configuration can support roughly three transactions per second. Bitcoin’s existing Schnorr signatures are 64 bytes.Although SHRINCS signatures start at about five times the size, they do not consume five times more block capacity. SegWit applies a weight discount to the transaction section containing signature data.The system also relies on SHA-256, which Bitcoin already uses in mining. Its security therefore does not depend on an entirely new mathematical assumption.SHRINCS is not ready for productionSHRINCS creates a fresh, one-time key for every transaction signature. Wallets must accurately track which keys they have already used.Records must remain synchronized across phones, hardware wallets and backups. Restoring an older wallet backup could complicate key management.The researchers have not completed a formal security proof for the system. The reference software has also not undergone a comprehensive security audit.Blockstream tested SHRINCS-signed transactions on the Liquid network in March. Adding the system to Bitcoin would require a backward-compatible soft fork.Ethereum prepares to change validator keysEthereum researchers published a separate draft one day before the Bitcoin proposal. It would rebuild the deposit contract through which validators join the network.Validators lock ETH to help secure Ethereum and confirm transactions. The current contract accepts only a cryptographic key format known as BLS.BLS can combine hundreds of thousands of signatures into a single signature. This feature helps keep Ethereum’s consensus costs manageable.BLS also relies on elliptic-curve mathematics. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could potentially forge a validator’s signature.Ethereum’s existing contract hard-codes the size of BLS keys. The network therefore cannot currently accept quantum-resistant keys of different sizes.The draft would allow the deposit contract to register different key types. Each deposit would carry a tag identifying its cryptographic system.BLS keys would use tag zero. Ethereum developers could later introduce additional tags for quantum-resistant systems.New BLS deposits could be permanently disabledIf Ethereum adopts the proposal, BLS keys would remain operational initially. Alternative signature systems could register through the same contract.A later upgrade could permanently disable new deposits using BLS keys. Existing BLS validators would remain active, while new participants would need different keys.Approximately 42.4 million ETH is currently staked on Ethereum. These assets are worth about $104 billion at current prices.The draft would make the deposit contract more flexible, but it would not complete the migration. Ethereum would also need a separate upgrade explaining how to verify the new signatures.EIP-8141, currently under consideration for the Hegotá upgrade, proposes a similar transition for user accounts. It would allow accounts to change their transaction authorization system without moving to a new address.The Ethereum Foundation aims to complete the core protocol changes around 2029. Bitcoin currently has no confirmed implementation timeline for SHRINCS.
Crypto Treasury Companies Hit the Brakes: BitMine Cuts ETH Purchases, Strategy Sells Bitcoin
Public companies accumulating cryptocurrencies have started to ease off their aggressive buying strategies. BitMine Immersion Technologies recorded its smallest weekly Ethereum purchase of 2026, while Strategy sold part of its Bitcoin holdings and used the proceeds to repurchase shares.Both transactions suggest that crypto treasury companies are placing greater emphasis on capital management alongside digital asset accumulation. BitMine has been buying back its own shares, while Strategy strengthened its cash reserves and retired part of its preferred stock.BitMine’s Ethereum purchases slow downBitMine, the world’s largest Ethereum treasury company, purchased 7,391 ETH last week. Worth approximately $14.2 million, the transaction marked the company’s smallest weekly Ethereum acquisition of 2026.The purchase lifted BitMine’s total holdings to 5.81 million ETH. The company now controls approximately 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply. The latest transaction also extended BitMine’s uninterrupted ETH buying streak to 58 weeks.However, the weekly purchase remained far below the acquisitions of more than 100,000 ETH that the company completed earlier this year. BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee previously said the company would slow its buying pace as it approached its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s supply.BitMine has shifted its focus toward share repurchases during this period. The company bought back 3 million BMNR shares last week for an estimated $50 million to $58 million. Its total share repurchases since July have now reached 19.1 million shares.BitMine also holds 209 BTC, $104 million in cash and marketable securities, as well as stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.Strategy sells 1,690 BitcoinBitcoin treasury company Strategy sold 1,690 BTC last week, raising $108.6 million. The Bitcoin was sold at an average price of $64,262 after fees and expenses. The company used the entire amount to repurchase shares of its variable-rate preferred stock, STRC. Strategy bought back 1,152,020 STRC shares for $108.6 million.Following the sale, Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings fell to 840,447 BTC. The company acquired these coins for a total of $63.36 billion at an average purchase price of $75,385.Strategy also raised another $653.1 million by selling 6.59 million shares of common stock during the same week. It transferred $650 million of the proceeds to its dollar reserve, lifting the balance to $4.65 billion as of August 9.Companies turn their attention to capital managementBitMine’s smaller Ethereum purchases and Strategy’s Bitcoin sale point to a new phase in corporate crypto treasury strategies. Companies are placing greater weight on share repurchases, cash reserves and financing costs as they manage their digital asset holdings.Thomas Lee also expressed disappointment that the CLARITY Act failed to secure a Senate vote before the August recess. Still, he said softer inflation and employment data could ease financial conditions, creating a supportive environment for the crypto market.
World’s Largest Asset Manager Brings $311 Billion Fund Suite to Ethereum
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, launched its first tokenized fund access in Europe on Tuesday. Working with JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform, the company created onchain share classes on the Ethereum blockchain.The initiative covers funds from BlackRock’s Institutional Cash Series (ICS) money market range. These funds held a combined $311 billion in assets under management as of June 30, so this is far from a small pilot project.According to BlackRock, Kinexys acts as a translation layer between onchain transactions and the funds’ traditional recordkeeping systems. Each token represents a share in an ICS fund, while the official shareholder register remains with the fund’s transfer agent.In other words, blockchain does not change the legal ownership structure. It digitizes the access and transfer layer.A total of 12 tokenized share classes across six fund families are now available: Euro Government Liquidity, Sterling Government Liquidity, U.S. Treasury, Euro Liquidity, Sterling Liquidity and U.S. Dollar Liquidity.Smart contracts allow approved investors to transfer shares directly between wallets around the clock, seven days a week. The structure continues to generate yield, while fund movements can be tracked onchain in near real time.Hannah Winter, head of BlackRock’s Digital Cash business, said tokenized money market funds bring short-term investment instruments into a digital format without compromising capital preservation, liquidity or risk management standards.How will institutions use the funds?According to the announcement, the tokenized share classes can support institutional cash management, digital collateral management, bank distribution channels and integration with broader tokenized financial ecosystems. Access is currently limited to 15 markets.The onchain share classes are available to investors in Bermuda, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Singapore and the United Kingdom.Lithuania’s inclusion on the list indicates that the country’s digital asset infrastructure is also becoming an attractive destination for institutional players.Tokenization has been on BlackRock’s agenda for yearsThis step is not a one-off experiment for BlackRock. In an article published by The Economist in December 2025, CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein argued that tokenization could accelerate transaction settlement, reduce operational friction in private markets and expand investment access by recording asset ownership on blockchain-based ledgers.The European launch came only one day after BlackRock unveiled two tokenized money market products designed for stablecoin reserves. BRSRV is a newly established fund, while BSTBL tokenizes share classes of the company’s existing Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund.Both products invest primarily in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury bills and overnight Treasury-backed repurchase agreements.The move also aligns with the objective outlined last month by BlackRock Chief Financial Officer Martin Small. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Small said BlackRock’s ultimate goal was to allow investors to access tokenized Treasury funds, iShares ETFs and private-market investments through digital wallets alongside crypto assets and stablecoins.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Options Worth $10.4 Billion Expired Today
The crypto options market saw a major expiration event on July 31. According to data shared by Wu Blockchain, 149,000 Bitcoin options contracts expired, carrying a total notional value of $9.6 billion.The put-call ratio came in at 0.28. The calculation is relatively straightforward: the number of put options in the market is divided by the number of call options. A low ratio of 0.28 means that call options outnumbered put options by nearly four to one. The overwhelming majority of the expiring positions were opened on the assumption that Bitcoin’s price would rise.The most actively traded strike price was $64,000. A strike price determines the level at which an options contract gives its holder the right to buy or sell the underlying asset.For example, an investor holding a Bitcoin call option with a $64,000 strike has the right to purchase Bitcoin at that price when the contract expires. The fact that $64,000 attracted the highest activity shows that market attention was heavily concentrated around this level.Ethereum presented a more mixed pictureOn the same day, 435,000 Ethereum options contracts also expired, with a total notional value of $830 million. Ethereum’s put-call ratio stood at 0.63, showing a considerably more balanced distribution than Bitcoin.As the ratio of put options to call options rises, the market can be described as more cautious about the price outlook, or at least more willing to seek downside protection. The most active strike price for Ethereum was recorded at $1,850.What do current prices indicate?Bitcoin is currently trading near $63,900, down a negligible 0.05% over the past 24 hours. The picture changes slightly when the timeframe expands, as Bitcoin has lost 2.29% over the past week.Despite the weekly decline, Bitcoin has gained 8.89% over the past 30 days. The recent cooling has therefore failed to disrupt the broader upward trend.The chart supports this view. Bitcoin traded near $65,600 on July 27 before fluctuating between $63,600 and $65,200 throughout the week. The price later slipped to around $63,978. The key detail is that the $64,000 strike price was almost identical to Bitcoin’s spot price at expiration. This means that a large share of the contracts were positioned around the current market price rather than a distant speculative target.That proximity makes the low put-call ratio more significant. Market participants appeared to expect Bitcoin to break above this price region.Ethereum’s price action tells a slightly different story. ETH is currently trading near $1,887, down 0.79% over the past 24 hours and 0.34% over the past week.The main difference appears in its monthly performance. Ethereum has gained 19.60% over the past 30 days, more than twice Bitcoin’s monthly return.The chart points to a similar pattern. Ethereum traded near $1,960 on July 27 before moving within a range of $1,880 to $1,940 during the week. It later declined to approximately $1,890.Ethereum’s $1,850 strike price also remained just below the spot price, with a gap of roughly $40. This proximity partly explains why Ethereum’s put-call ratio was more balanced than Bitcoin’s.When the spot price trades this close to a major strike level, investors can more easily open positions on both sides of the market for hedging purposes.Large options expirations often generate short-term volatility in the crypto market. Options writers may open positions in spot or futures markets to manage their exposure, especially when the spot price remains close to major strike levels.This hedging activity can trigger sudden and temporary price movements as expiration approaches. Part of the volatility seen in Bitcoin and Ethereum during the week may be linked to these adjustments.It is difficult to draw a long-term conclusion from a single day of options data. Still, Bitcoin’s low put-call ratio and the strong monthly performance of both assets suggest that the broader market trend remains upward despite the recent short-term cooling.
Kimi K3 Shock Pulls Bitcoin Down to $63,000
Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies fell on Friday. The sell-off was mainly attributed to Beijing-based Moonshot AI releasing a free artificial intelligence model that outperformed Anthropic’s best model in coding tasks.Moonshot unveiled Kimi K3 on Thursday. By Friday morning, AI and semiconductor stocks were falling across Asian markets. Market participants dubbed the event the “Kimi moment,” a reference to the DeepSeek shock that erased nearly $600 billion from Nvidia’s market value in a single session 18 months ago.What does the model do?Moonshot’s model has 2.8 trillion parameters and a context window of one million tokens. That makes it roughly four times larger than the previous version.K3 uses a mixture-of-experts architecture. For each task, it activates only 16 of its 896 internal experts. This keeps operating costs relatively low despite the model’s size. According to information shared in the company’s technical blog, the architectural changes provide around 2.5 times greater scaling efficiency than the previous model.K3 ranked first on Arena’s Frontend Code leaderboard with a score of 1,679. Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 followed with 1,631 points, while OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 scored 1,618.K3 led six of the seven categories. Moonshot’s previous model ranked 18th on the same leaderboard, meaning the company climbed 17 places with a single release. However, K3 still trails the top configurations from Claude and OpenAI in general knowledge and reasoning tests. Its advantage is therefore concentrated in a specific field rather than extending across every category.The licensing terms are causing more concern in markets than the pricing itself. K3 is an open-weight model, and Moonshot plans to make the full version publicly available on July 27. Anyone will be able to download the model and run it on their own hardware free of charge.Anthropic released Fable 5 last month, while OpenAI launched GPT-5.6 a week ago. Both are closed-source, paid models. The assumption supporting hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure spending was that the most advanced models would remain scarce, expensive and primarily American. A free Chinese model taking the top spot in a coding leaderboard directly challenges that premise.Moonshot’s domestic rivals were among the hardest hit. Shares of Z.ai fell 27%, while MiniMax dropped around 16%.Domino effect across marketsBitcoin fell to around $63,000 on Friday. The cryptocurrency lost 1.7% over the previous 24 hours and 2.2% on a weekly basis.According to market data, ETH held near $1,836 and maintained a weekly gain of 2.4%. Hyperliquid suffered the steepest decline, falling 8% over 24 hours and 12% for the week. Bitcoin price Nasdaq 100 futures declined 1.8%, while S&P 500 futures dropped 0.9%. A semiconductor exchange-traded fund lost 3% in premarket trading. Taiwan’s stock market entered correction territory, while Asia’s main benchmark fell to its lowest level in two months. European markets proved relatively resilient because of their lower exposure to the technology sector.The central question behind the sell-off has been hanging over markets since the beginning of the month: Will the hundreds of billions of dollars invested by AI companies generate sufficient returns? TSMC’s results this week failed to provide a clear answer.The crypto market has been caught in the same current throughout the quarter. Softer inflation data pushed Bitcoin toward $65,000 earlier this week, although that move was driven by macroeconomic conditions. The sell-off in semiconductor stocks is now pulling prices in the opposite direction. The Federal Reserve will meet on July 28–29.The miners’ fragile betThe most tangible risk for the crypto sector lies in the business models of mining companies rather than in on-chain data. Over the past two years, Bitcoin miners have increasingly transformed themselves into landlords for AI data centers. They signed long-term contracts with model developers based on the assumption that demand for computing power used in training and inference would continue to rise.This strategy relies on scarcity. If advanced AI capabilities can be obtained for free through an open-source model that requires fewer resources, tenants may have less reason to sign these contracts. That could undermine the miner-to-AI transformation strategy that has supported the valuations of many publicly traded Bitcoin companies.DeepSeek’s release delivered the same lesson 18 months ago. The market reaction was sharp but brief. Nvidia recovered, Bitcoin rebounded and capital expenditure continued to rise.The difference this time may lie in how crypto is positioned. In January 2025, Bitcoin fell alongside technology stocks because it was treated as a risk asset during a risk-off session. In July 2026, it is behaving more like a leveraged reflection of the AI capital cycle. One week, it rises on the back of a Korean chip listing; the next, it falls after a new model announcement from China.K3’s model weights will become publicly available in ten days. That is when the market will find out whether its leaderboard performance holds up under broader scrutiny.
BitMine’s Winning Formula: 98% of Revenue Came From ETH Staking
BitMine Immersion Technologies reported $46.5 million in revenue for the quarter ended May 31. Ethereum staking and validator services generated $45.7 million of that total, accounting for 98% of revenue.According to the company’s 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, total revenue stood at just $2.05 million in the same period a year earlier. The sharp increase shows that BitMine has almost completely transformed its business model.Staking revenue takes the leadLast year, machine leasing and Bitcoin mining were the company’s main revenue sources. That changed in March, when BitMine acquired Australian validator operator Pier Two and launched the MAVAN platform.MAVAN, short for Made in America Validator Network, provides Ethereum staking infrastructure for institutional custodians, investors and other participants in the ecosystem.Chairman Tom Lee said this week that annualized staking revenue could reach $284 million if all of the company’s ETH holdings were staked through MAVAN and its partners. BitMine currently holds 5.42 million ETH, with approximately 4.9 million ETH, or 85% of the portfolio, already staked through MAVAN.Other revenue streams remained far behind. The company generated $624,000 from its own mining operations and $168,000 from consulting services. It recorded no revenue from equipment leasing or sales, as those business lines had already been discontinued.The balance sheet shows a large lossA closer look at the figures reveals a less positive picture. BitMine posted a net loss of $82.2 million for the quarter, compared with only $480,000 a year earlier.Most of the loss came from a $92.1 million decline related to derivative contracts and a $15.4 million unrealized loss on digital assets. A $16.5 million gain from warrant liabilities and $5.3 million in interest income partly offset the losses, but they were not enough to eliminate them.As of May 31, the company held 5.42 million ETH and 203 Bitcoin, with a combined value of approximately $10.9 billion. BitMine also reported $340.3 million in cash and $433.1 million in working capital.Shares moved higherBMNR shares rose 11.5% on Tuesday following the release of the results, closing at $16.29. Despite the large quarterly loss, investors appeared to focus on the growth of the staking business and Tom Lee’s projections for future revenue.The picture for BitMine is clear. Its shift toward an Ethereum staking model has created a significant increase in operational revenue. However, volatility in derivative positions and crypto asset valuations continues to weigh heavily on the balance sheet.The company’s performance in the coming quarters will depend both on the direction of the ETH price and on how far it can increase the proportion of its Ethereum holdings staked through MAVAN beyond the current 85%.
US Government Sends $288 Million in BTC and ETH to Coinbase
Wallets linked to the US government transferred more than $288 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum to Coinbase Prime on Monday. The assets moved through several transactions executed within short intervals, according to real-time tracking by onchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence.Arkham data shows that the wallets transferred a total of 3,800.5 BTC and 30,007 ETH. At current market prices, the combined value exceeds $288 million. Bitcoin has gained 1.38% over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum has risen 3.05%, increasing the dollar value of the transferred assets. Who were the assets seized from?A significant portion of the transferred cryptocurrencies came from assets seized in separate criminal investigations. Wallets labeled by Arkham were linked to cases involving Ryan Farace and Brian Krewson.Farace was convicted of selling counterfeit Xanax pills on darknet marketplaces. His case had previously attracted attention after US authorities announced plans to dispose of $117 million worth of Bitcoin seized from a drug dealer linked to the Silk Road marketplace.The allegations against Krewson were different. Authorities accused him of helping conceal and launder $54 million in cryptocurrency generated through drug trafficking.Some of the transferred assets were also connected to BTC-e, an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange that was shut down in 2017. During its years of operation, BTC-e allegedly facilitated billions of dollars in illicit financial activity.Legal proceedings linked to the exchange continued for years after its closure. Alexander Vinnik, one of the most prominent figures associated with BTC-e, was recently returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.What does the Coinbase Prime transfer mean?Coinbase Prime provides custody and trading services to institutional clients. Moving assets to the platform could precede a sale, although the transfer alone does not confirm that liquidation is imminent.Similar transfers from government-controlled wallets have produced different outcomes in the past. Some assets remained untouched for months after reaching institutional platforms, while others were gradually sold.There is also another factor to consider. An executive order signed by Donald Trump in March 2025 called for seized Bitcoin to be transferred into the country’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order also instructed federal agencies not to sell Bitcoin obtained through criminal or civil forfeiture proceedings.The latest transfer may therefore represent an administrative custody or reserve-management transaction rather than preparation for a sale. At this stage, the government’s intention remains unclear, and the market’s interpretation of the movement may become more visible in the coming days.The broader pictureAccording to Arkham, wallets associated with the US government hold more than $20 billion in cryptocurrency, with most of the assets originating from law enforcement seizures.The portfolio reportedly includes 324,552 BTC, a figure that places the US government among the world’s largest known Bitcoin holders. The wallets also contain Ethereum, USDT, BNB and ZEC.This diversified portfolio shows that government seizures are no longer limited to Bitcoin. US authorities have accumulated assets across several blockchain networks through investigations involving criminal organizations, darknet markets and money-laundering operations.
Buterin Announces Ethereum’s Third Major Transformation
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared new assessments on the network’s long-term roadmap. The effort, called “Lean Ethereum,” is described as a transformation on the same scale as the Merge upgrade.In a post on X on Saturday, Buterin wrote that this is not a one-time update, but a series of improvements that will unfold over the next three to four years. In his own words, this is Ethereum’s “third major iteration,” and almost every part of the protocol will change.The post came after a meeting held by Ethereum researchers in Berlin at the end of June. The updated plan is part of a draft roadmap introduced in February by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, which includes seven network upgrades through 2029.Major Change in Data StorageButerin sees the change in the data storage system as the most disruptive part of the plan. Ethereum currently keeps everything, from token balances to exchange contracts, in a single expensive format. Under the new plan, this system will remain in place for the most complex applications, while a separate and cheaper layer will open for simpler applications.In Buterin’s example, this new layer could carry 50 times more data than the old system by 2030. Most tokens, NFTs, and DeFi applications could move to the cheaper layer, while complex contracts such as Uniswap would remain in the existing system. No one will be forced to migrate, but transaction fees for a token designed according to the new system could fall by more than 10 times.Quantum Security and Privacy Move to the ForefrontQuantum security has moved “very significantly” higher on the priority list, in Buterin’s own words. Concerns that future quantum computers could break today’s cryptography require vulnerable components on the roadmap to be replaced from end to end. The most urgent issue is finding a quantum-resistant design for blobs, the temporary data space used by Layer 2 networks to keep fees low.Privacy has gained a similar position. Buterin said privacy is no longer an add-on feature, but a primary goal; new features are now designed with the question of how transactions can remain private in mind. A quantum-resistant network and private ETH transfers embedded into the base layer are listed among the five main goals of the draft roadmap.What Will Replace the EVM?Buterin also addressed alternatives that could replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the software environment that runs every application. He pointed to RISC-V and leanISA as the most likely candidates, but acknowledged that this change remains a distant target. The RISC-V proposal, which came up in April 2025, sparked debate; Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs argued last November that WebAssembly would be a better choice, but that option was not included in Buterin’s list on Saturday.In the ideal scenario, the network would run entirely on the new engine, while the current EVM would remain as a translation layer so older applications can continue to operate smoothly.Timing Pressure ContinuesButerin said Ethereum’s capacity will increase steadily over the next five years, with a major gas limit increase expected through the Glamsterdam upgrade. Glamsterdam, expected in the first half of 2026, has not yet gone live, and Hegota is expected to follow. Hegota, planned as this year’s second upgrade, is expected to be the last major hard fork before Lean Ethereum.The post came about ten days after the Ethereum Foundation completed a restructuring that included laying off around 20% of its staff, or 54 people.At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading around $1,762.83.
8-Year Dormant Ethereum Wallets Sell Near the Bottom
Four wallets that accumulated ETH at an average price of $830 in 2018 moved on Friday after eight years of silence. They put their ETH up for sale at a time when the market was going through one of the deepest pullbacks of this cycle, walking away with gains far below the position’s full potential.According to Arkham data shared by onchain analytics platform Lookonchain, the four wallets sold a total of 33,623 ETH within roughly four hours, at an average price of $1,560 per coin. The sales generated around $52.5 million in total proceeds, while net profit is estimated at roughly $27.4 million.Timing Was Painful for the WhalesThe numbers may look large on their own, but the real story is the missed opportunity. During both the 2021 and 2025 bull markets, the paper profit of these four wallets had exceeded $150 million, more than five times the amount they ultimately realized. However, the ETH holders chose not to sell at those peaks, and the market is now offering a much lower price.Ethereum had reached an all-time high of around $4,946 in August 2025. Since then, the price has seen a sharp decline. According to the ETH price page, ETH was trading around $1,565 as of Friday. In other words, the owners of these wallets waited eight years, only to sell near the bottom. The four addresses behind the sale had purchased a total of 37,602 ETH in 2018 at around $830 per coin. These wallets had not made a single transaction until Friday, when they moved for the first time. The addresses are: 0x71B...D412f, 0x92a...ae49D, 0x6C7...5C327 and 0xffd...5BeE5.Dormant Wallets Are Waking Up One After AnotherThis sale is not an isolated case. In recent months, several long-dormant Ethereum wallets have become active again as the market has weakened.In March, an Ethereum “veteran” who had held for more than a decade reportedly sold $31 million worth of ETH through Coinbase. In April, an ICO-era investor moved 10,000 ETH, worth about $23 million at the time, to a new address after more than ten years of inactivity.Holding without making a transaction for eight years initially points to a strong long-term investor profile. However, this case shows that in the crypto market, exit timing can be just as decisive as the length of the holding period, no matter how powerful the patient investor narrative may be. Although the wallet owners still made millions of dollars in profit, the charts also show that the sale took place during a period of market weakness.
SharpLink Buys 5,000 ETH After Eight Months of Silence
SharpLink reopened a wallet that had been inactive for eight months on a day when Ethereum fell to its lowest level of 2026, placing a 5,000 ETH order in the market. Here are the details…SharpLink opens its wallet for EthereumSharpLink made its first Ethereum purchase since October 2025. According to information shared by onchain analytics platform EmberCN, based on Arkham data, the company received a transfer of 5,000 ETH from FalconX on Thursday. The transaction was worth around $7.85 million at the time.The purchase came on the same day ETH fell to its lowest level of 2026; Ethereum dropped as low as $1,537 on Thursday. SharpLink’s previous purchase through FalconX took place in October 2025, when the company paid $78.3 million for 19,270 ETH. According to data on the company’s website, SharpLink held 876,285 ETH as of June 21, which was worth roughly $1.3 billion at the time. Based on EmberCN’s calculations, the company’s average purchase price stands at $3,609 per ETH. Compared with today’s prices, that difference points to a paper loss of $1.79 billion. SharpLink has not yet officially confirmed the purchase.The company ranks second among corporate ETH treasury holders. The top spot belongs to Bitmine Immersion, led by Tom Lee. As of June 14, Bitmine held 5.67 million ETH, worth $8.7 billion, and continued its buying pace with an additional 52,203 ETH added last week.SharpLink changed its name from SharpLink Gaming in February and shifted from a traditional staking model to a broader onchain yield strategy. In the first quarter of this year, the company reported $12.1 million in revenue, compared with just $742,000 in the same period a year earlier.The company is also among the backers of Ethlabs, a nonprofit founded by former Ethereum Foundation researchers. Ethlabs aims to prepare the network for the next phase of institutional adoption. Its supporters include Ethereum co-founder and SharpLink Chairman Joe Lubin, as well as Bitmine Immersion.The ETH purchase came in the middle of a broader market selloff. Ethereum fell 5% in the past 24 hours to $1,534, while Bitcoin dropped 3.3% to $58,787. Meanwhile, Tether’s USDT surpassed Ethereum by market capitalization, with USDT rising to $186.1 billion while Ethereum stood at $185.4 billion.SharpLink’s Nasdaq-listed shares closed Thursday down 3.49% at $4.56. The stock has lost 26.8% over the past month and 50.4% over the past six months.
Bitmine Captures 4.7% of Ethereum Supply
Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced that it has increased its Ethereum treasury to 5.67 million ETH tokens. This figure corresponds to 4.7% of the total circulating supply of ETH, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.With purchases made over the past week, the company’s total Ethereum holdings increased by 52,203 tokens. Based on a price of $1,733 per token, the treasury is currently worth approximately $9.8 billion. This makes Bitmine the world’s largest corporate holder of Ethereum. In terms of total crypto treasury size, the company ranks second behind Strategy Inc., which holds a $54 billion Bitcoin position. Although the gap between the two companies remains wide, Bitmine’s recent accumulation pace suggests that it could gradually narrow the distance.Including Bitmine’s strategic investments, which it refers to as “moonshots,” including its partnership with Beast Industries, the company’s total crypto assets, cash and securities reached $10.7 billion as of June 21.With this figure, Bitmine has reached 94% of its self-defined “alchemy of 5” target. This goal involves holding 5% of Ethereum’s total supply of 120.7 million tokens. The fact that the company is now so close to this target shows that it has continued its accumulation strategy regardless of price fluctuations.“We are at the beginning of crypto spring”Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said the company maintained a steady accumulation pace throughout 2026 and added that he believes “we are still at the beginning of crypto spring.”Lee said the best period for crypto markets is still ahead and added that rapid advances in tokenization and artificial intelligence are likely to exponentially increase demand for blockchain and decentralized crypto systems.ETH traded at $1,763 on Monday, rising 2.26% over the past 24 hours. This level is still about 64% below its all-time high of $4,946.05, recorded in August 2025. The fact that the price remains so far from its peak shows that Bitmine’s accumulation strategy is based on long-term supply targets rather than short-term price movements.Staking income exceeds $200 millionBitmine said it has currently staked 4,718,677 tokens, or more than 83% of its total Ethereum holdings. According to the company, the staking operations are generating a weekly yield of 2.73%, while annualized staking income currently stands at around $223 million. Once the MAVAN validator infrastructure reaches full capacity, this figure is expected to rise to $268 million.The company’s transparent disclosure of staking income shows that its Ethereum treasury is not only based on price appreciation, but is also turning into a yield-generating revenue model.Beyond Ethereum, Bitmine’s portfolio includes 205 Bitcoin, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, a $104 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and a total of $601 million in cash and securities.Bitmine shares closed Friday’s session up 2.8% at $16.14.
$2.1 Billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum Options Expire
The Bitcoin and Ethereum options market has shifted its focus back to price dynamics following the weekly expiry. Contracts with a combined notional value of $2.1 billion expired, with both assets trading below their respective maximum pain levels.Bitcoin and ETH Options ExpireBitcoin and Ethereum options contracts dated June 19 expired with a combined notional value exceeding $2.1 billion. According to data shared by Adam, a macro researcher at Greeks.live, approximately 31,000 BTC options expired with a put-call ratio of 0.78, a maximum pain point of $65,000 and a notional value of $1.9 billion.Meanwhile, 138,000 ETH options expired on the same day. These contracts had a put-call ratio of 1.03, a maximum pain point of $1,725 and a notional value of $230 million. Calls Still Dominate Overall Open InterestThe broader open interest picture tells a slightly different story. Bitcoin has 284,786.70 call contracts and 182,440.60 put contracts outstanding, bringing the overall put-call ratio to 0.64.Ethereum has 1,432,297 call contracts and 800,389 put contracts, leaving its ratio at 0.56. While selling pressure was more visible in the daily expiry, calls continue to dominate across the broader market.A significant share of this open interest is concentrated on a single date. Contracts expiring on June 26 account for 35.09% of total Bitcoin open interest and 44.67% of Ethereum open interest. Adam said next week’s quarterly expiry will cover approximately 15% of total open interest.Prices Remain Below Maximum Pain LevelsAccording to Adam, Bitcoin attempted to recover toward $67,000 this week, but the move lacked sufficient momentum. The market’s buying capacity remained limited amid institutional selling pressure.Both BTC and ETH are currently trading below their respective maximum pain levels and continue to fluctuate around these ranges.This week’s expiry represents approximately 6.5% of total open interest. The figure is lower than last week’s level and remains within the average range recorded in recent periods.Gamma Concentration Sits Between $60,000 and $63,000The options structure shows gamma exposure, or GEX, concentrated between $60,000 and $63,000. These positions will expire over the next two weeks and could affect price action through released margin or changes in implied volatility.The skew indicator also remains in negative territory, suggesting that market participants are still seeking protection against a potential decline.MicroStrategy Pressure Weakens Market ConfidenceAdam identified MicroStrategy’s continued coin sales and the discount affecting its shares as two major factors weakening market confidence and making fresh capital inflows more difficult.Market sentiment remains subdued for now.
Bitmine Bought 76,881 ETH in One Week: Portfolio Rises to $10.4 Billion
Ethereum-focused corporate treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) purchased another 76,881 ETH last week. The purchase took place at a point where 1 ETH was trading at around $1,718, lifting the company’s total ETH holdings to 5.62 million tokens. Bitmine’s total crypto, cash and investment portfolio has reached $10.4 billion, while the company continues to hold its position as the largest Ethereum treasury globally. Accumulation continuesCompany Chairman Thomas Lee explained the reasoning behind the purchase directly: “This pullback in ETH prices does not reflect Ethereum’s strengthening fundamentals. That is why we are keeping our buying pace relatively elevated.”This weekly purchase of 76,881 ETH remained below the previous week’s record-level acquisition of 126,971 ETH, but it still shows Bitmine’s continued commitment to its target. The company’s long-term goal is to acquire five percent of Ethereum’s total supply. With Ethereum’s total supply standing at 120.7 million tokens, Bitmine held a 4.66% share as of June 14, 2026. The company is now only 0.34 percentage points away from this target, which it calls the “alchemy of 5%.”The company also holds 204 Bitcoin, $502 million in cash and securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, and an $88 million stake in Nasdaq-listed Eightco Holdings (ORBS). Eightco stands out as one of the rare publicly traded stocks offering indirect exposure to OpenAI.Preferred share issuance and staking incomeBitmine completed the sale of 3.5 million Series A Perpetual Preferred Shares on June 10, 2026, carrying a 9.50% annual dividend. After underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses, the company received net cash proceeds of $273.8 million. The shares, expected to begin trading on the NYSE under the ticker BMNP on June 16, 2026, will pay dividends weekly.This model is being compared to the preferred capital instruments used by Strategy (MSTR) to finance Bitcoin purchases. However, according to Lee, Bitmine’s balance is different: regular cash flow from Ethereum staking provides a stronger foundation for meeting dividend obligations. “The company’s estimated annual staking rewards are approximately $219 million. This income provides the projected cash flow to support the dividends related to the Series A preferred shares,” Lee said.Staking platform and institutional infrastructureBitmine recently launched its institutional-grade staking platform MAVAN, short for Made in America Validator Network. Initially developed to support the company’s own Ethereum treasury, the platform plans to serve institutional investors, custodians and ecosystem partners in the future.As of June 14, Bitmine’s total staked ETH reached 4,718,677 tokens. At a price of $1,718, this corresponds to roughly $8.1 billion and represents more than 83% of the company’s total ETH holdings. Once all ETH is fully staked, annual staking income is expected to reach $269 million; the seven-day yield stood at 2.79%.Market position and institutional backingBitmine has managed to become one of the most actively traded stocks on U.S. exchanges. According to Fundstrat data, BMNR ranked 203rd among 5,704 U.S.-listed stocks by five-day average trading volume, with $550 million in daily volume. It was positioned between Oklo Technologies at 202nd and Parker-Hannifin at 204th.On the investor side, notable names include Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Kraken, DCG, Galaxy Digital and Thomas Lee himself as a personal investor.The company also entered the Fortune Crypto 100 list on June 11, 2026. Compiled by Fortune magazine based on data analysis from Inca Digital and input from crypto experts, the list ranks the most influential companies in the blockchain sector.Support from infrastructureBitmine’s management views the GENIUS Act enacted in the United States and the SEC’s Project Crypto initiative as a historic turning point for financial markets. According to the company, these regulatory steps are comparable in significance to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 and carry the potential to reshape Wall Street.The board of directors also approved a third weekly cash dividend of $0.2639 per share for the Series A Preferred Shares it holds. The payment will be made on July 6, 2026, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 26, 2026.
