Market Highlights
- GENIUS Act passed Senate floor vote.
- Texas & Arizona passed crypto reserve legislation.
- Ethereum validator staking reached over 35 million, representing 28.3% of circulating ETH.
- Trump Media filed with the U.S. SEC for approval of its Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF.
- The Trump family reduced its stake in World Liberty Financial from 60% to 40%.
Markets Overview
Markets traded sideways for much of the week amid uncertainty over U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict. This was followed by oil and gold prices rising, and stock futures falling after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, June 21. Risk assets rebounded following reports of a ceasefire on Monday, June 23.
Early in the week, U.S. retail sales for May disappointed, coming in at -0.9% versus a forecast of -0.5%. The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left rates on hold at 4.5% at its June 19 meeting. Despite a downgrade in expected real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2025 to 1.4% (down from 1.7%), FOMC members expect the federal funds rate to be cut by 50 basis points by year’s end.
The Swiss National Bank reduced its policy rate to 0%, while the Bank of England maintained its official bank rate of 4.25%.
Weekly performance: S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow Jones 0%, Nasdaq +0.2%.
Looking ahead:
- Manufacturing and services PMI updates for the EU, UK and U.S. on June 23.
- U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks on June 25.
- U.S. final GDP for Q1 2025 on June 26.
Crypto Market Sector Performance
All sectors experienced losses this week as risk assets, including altcoins, sold off amid geopolitical uncertainty.
- Biggest losers
- Data availability: Dymension(-14.1%) continued to sell off, hitting a weekly low of US$0.19 on June 22 before gaining over 11% on June 23.
- Data services: BitTorrent (-13.6%) declined as the peer-to-peer file transfer protocol struggled to break downside pressure.
Bitcoin (BTC)
- Opened the week at US$105,600, declined on uncertainty over the Iran-Israel conflict and gained on reports of a ceasefire (-1.3% on the week).
- US$1B in long crypto positions were liquidated in the sell-off that followed the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22.
- BTC dominance hit a new cycle high of over 66%.
- US$1.1 billion inflows to bitcoin asset investment products this week (-15.4%).
Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap announced a US$1 billion merger to establish PropCap Financial. The new company will merge with Columbus Circle Capital and be a bitcoin-native financial services firm. It will hold US$1 billion worth of BTC once the merger is complete.
A US$5.9 billion lawsuit has been brought against Strategy due to its Q1 loss. The lawsuit claims that several of Strategy’s executives, including Chair Michael Saylor and four board directors, breached their fiduciary responsibilities by failing to communicate effectively how a new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rule would be applied to Strategy’s accounting practices.
Texas became the third U.S. state to establish a bitcoin reserve. Senate Bill 21 and House Bill 4488 were signed into law, authorising their comptroller to buy, sell, hold and manage crypto assets with an average minimum market cap of US$500 billion.
Arizona’s Senate passed House Bill 2324, which will allow the state to establish a fund for digital assets seized through criminal asset forfeiture. It will now proceed to the House for a final vote.
In bitcoin buying news:
- Strategy bought 246 BTC, bringing its holdings to 592,345.
- Metaplanet bought 1,111 BTC, bringing its holdings to 11,111 BTC.
- Prenetics Global acquired $US20 million worth of BTC to establish its BTC reserve.
- KindlyMD and Nakamoto Holdings raised an additional US$51.5 million to establish a BTC treasury.
- Fold is selling US$250 million in new shares to buy more BTC. The company currently holds 1,488 BTC.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
- Opened the week at US$2,547 (-5.9% on the week).
- Sold off to a weekly low of US$2,113 due to geopolitical uncertainty and later rebounded on reports of an Iran-Israel ceasefire.
- US$124 million inflows into Ethereum ETFs this week (-99.8%).
The amount of staked Ethereum pledged for validating network transactions reached a record 35 million on June 17. This represents 28.3% of the network’s circulating supply, indicating that conviction in the cryptocurrency is growing.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Altcoins
Despite the recent rally across the crypto market, it’s not altcoin season yet. Bitcoin’s dominance reached a cycle high of over 66% this week, but analysts expect it to decline to around 50% in the second half of the year, when the alt season may begin.
DeFi gains
- AirSwap (AST) gained 50.6%. The decentralised peer-to-peer network has seen a recent rally due to increased whale activity.
- Gains Network (GNS) gained 34.6%. The on-chain leveraged trading network saw bullish momentum on the announcement of PayPal's listing on the platform.
- Liquity (LQTY) gained 34.6%. The DeFi borrowing protocol saw gains as the Ekubo protocol on the network committed to bribing Liquity Protocol voters with $BOLD, the platform’s staking rewards, if they participate.
SEI good
- Sei (SEI) gained 28.8%. The network for decentralised exchanges (DEX) recorded its highest weekly DEX activity, with token volume soaring to over US$263 million throughout the week.
Ready to party
- Aergo (AERGO) gained 22.2%. The open-source enterprise blockchain announced that its House Party Protocol (HPP) testnet is live. HPP is an AI-based layer-2 protocol, and Aergo will be transitioning to this network over the next 12 months.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Crypto ETF News
Digital asset investment products saw their tenth consecutive week of inflows, with over US$1.2 billion flowing into funds. In altcoins, Solana and XRP funds saw inflows of US$2.8 million and US$2.7 million, respectively.
Wall Street analysts estimate that the likelihood of altcoin ETFs being approved before year-end is nearly 100%. Several firms currently have applications for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Cardano, Polkadot, Hedera, and Avalanche ETFs before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In new ETF filings with the U.S. SEC, CoinShares filed to launch the CoinShares Solana ETF on the Nasdaq, and Trump Media filed for approval of its Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, which would comprise 75% BTC and 25% ETH.
Other crypto news
- DT Marks DEFI LLC, the Trump family’s crypto corporation, reduced its stake in World Liberty Financial from 60% to 40%. President Trump reportedly earned US$57 million from World Liberty Financial token sales processed before the 2024 election.
- Trump Media and Technology Group is buying back up to US$400 million worth of shares. The company’s board of directors explicitly stated that it will not use any of the US$2.3 billion raised to establish its BTC reserve.
- Democrat Senator Adam Schiff introduced the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure, or COIN Act, to prevent the “financial exploitation of digital assets” by President Trump and other senior administration officials. The bill specifically targets stablecoins, but could extend to other digital assets, such as memecoins and non-fungible tokens.
- The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act on June 17 in a 68-30 vote. The bill will establish a framework for issuing and trading stablecoins. It now moves to the House, with debate likely to occur before the congressional August recess.
- Wyoming policymakers announced that their state-backed stablecoin is planned for launch at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on August 20. The stablecoin, WYST, has been in development since 2022 and is expected to operate across several major crypto networks.
- Canadian company, Sol Strategies filed with the U.S. SEC to list on the Nasdaq under “STKE”. The company holds more than 420,000 SOL, valued at approximately US$72 million. It secured a US$500 million convertible note facility earlier in 2025 through ATW Partners and filed a US$1 billion shelf prospectus with Canadian regulators in May.
- The Thai Cabinet passed legislation to waive capital gains tax on crypto sales made through licensed platforms from 2025 to 2029. It forms part of the country’s broader ambitions to make the Southeast Asian country “one of the world’s financial hubs”.
- The U.S. Department of Justice filed to seize US$225.3 million worth of USDT linked to Asian “pig butchering” scams. Most of the USDT had been laundered through OKX by using fake social media profiles and sob stories to gain trust from victims and eventually coerce them into sending funds. Tether and OKX notified authorities of suspicious transactions involving over 144 accounts in 2023, which triggered the investigation.
Disclaimer: This assessment does not consider your personal circumstances, and should not be construed as financial, legal or investment advice. These thoughts are ours only and should only be taken as educational by the reader. Under no circumstances do we make recommendation or assurance towards the views expressed in the blog-post. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The Company disclaims all duties and liabilities, including liability for negligence, for any loss or damage which is suffered or incurred by any person acting on any information provided.
from Caleb & Brown Cryptocurrency Brokerage.
