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MicroStrategy’s biggest Bitcoin financing tool is under pressure. Strategy’s STRC preferred stock fell well below its intended $100 level this week, raising fresh questions about the company’s complex plan to keep buying Bitcoin through Wall Street-style securities.
The selloff drew extra attention because Saylor has linked Strategy’s new preferred-stock products to AI-assisted design.
“When we did STRC, I did it all with AI. I couldn’t have done it myself. I literally sat and used AI, went back and forth for hours,” Saylor said in an interview.
STRC, formally known as Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, was built to trade close to $100. Strategy can adjust its dividend rate each month to help support that target.
That design is now being tested.
STRC traded near the high-$80s after falling as low as the low-$80s, well below the level Strategy wants it to hold.
For a product sold as a relatively stable, high-yield preferred stock, that drop has become a major signal for investors.
STRC Stock Price Chart. Source: Google Finance The AI Angle Turns a Selloff Into a Meme
The crash became more sensational because of Saylor’s comments about AI.
Saylor has said Strategy used artificial intelligence to help design some of its preferred-stock products. Critics are now mocking STRC as an “AI-designed” security that is breaking under market pressure.
The line is catchy, but the reality is more complicated. AI likely helped with modelling, structure, or product design. The security itself still went through bankers, lawyers, executives, and market approval.
Still, the optics are bad. STRC was pitched as financial engineering for the Bitcoin era. Its drop below $100 makes that engineering look less stable than advertised.
STRC is down 15% in two weeks.Saylor said he "designed it with ChatGPT." pic.twitter.com/GepEwnmbUx
— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) June 18, 2026
What STRC Actually Is
STRC is not Bitcoin or a stablecoin, but it’s not a normal company share either.
It is a preferred stock issued by Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy. Preferred stocks usually sit between common shares and debt. Investors buy them mainly for income.
STRC pays a high dividend. Strategy can raise or lower that dividend monthly to try to keep the stock trading around $100.
That is the core mechanism. If STRC falls too far below $100, the market expects Strategy to raise the dividend to make it more attractive.
The financial house of cards @Saylor built is collapsing. $MSTR's per-share discount to its Bitcoin holdings is soaring, $STRC is tanking, and Bitcoin itself is breaking down, taking the rest of crypto down with it. Soon Saylor will trade in his orange tie for an orange jumpsuit.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) June 18, 2026
Why the Drop Matters
A higher dividend means MicroStrategy must pay more to investors.
That increases the cost of raising capital. It also makes future STRC issuance harder. If investors no longer believe STRC can hold near $100, Strategy may have to offer even higher yields to attract buyers.
For Saylor, that matters because Strategy has used securities like STRC to fund its Bitcoin strategy. The company raises money from capital markets and uses part of that money to buy more Bitcoin.
When that machine works, Strategy can keep expanding its Bitcoin holdings without selling much common stock at unattractive levels.
When it weakens, the choices get harder.
Will MicroStrategy Have to Sell More Bitcoin?
There is no confirmed sign that Strategy will have to sell Bitcoin again because of STRC.
The concern is about pressure, not an immediate forced sale.
If STRC keeps falling, Strategy may need to raise the dividend again. If dividend costs rise, the company needs reliable cash flow or fresh capital to keep paying investors.
That could lead to more common stock issuance, which would dilute shareholders. It could also reduce Strategy’s ability to buy more Bitcoin.
In a more stressed scenario, investors worry the company may eventually face pressure to sell some Bitcoin to meet obligations or defend its balance sheet.
That would hit the core narrative around Saylor’s strategy. Strategy has built its identity around accumulating Bitcoin, not selling it.

Rockstar Games officially confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders will begin on June 25. The announcement sent GTA 6 and Rockstar-themed meme coins skyrocketing across crypto markets within hours.
Here is what Rockstar Games confirmed, why the meme coins exploded, and what investors should track before any potential pullback.
Pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI will officially begin on June 25 on digital storefronts and at other select retailers.Check out the official cover art, also available as downloadable artwork at https://t.co/XPwC8URCQ4 pic.twitter.com/pRVXk4eyDQ
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) June 18, 2026
Why the GTA 6 Pre-Orders News Sparked a Frenzy
Pre-orders are early purchases that gamers can place before a video game title’s official release date. Rockstar Games confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders will officially open on June 25 across all major platforms and global digital storefronts.
The announcement reignited massive hype around what is already considered one of the most anticipated game launches in history.
GTA 6 has dominated gaming conversations for years. Moreover, the long wait between the original announcement and the release has intensified retail attention.
Crypto markets reacted within minutes. GTA 6 and Rockstar-themed meme coins surged sharply across multiple decentralized exchanges, especially on Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain.
The speculative rally reflects how gaming narratives consistently fuel meme coin volatility cycles.
GTA VI-themed meme coins. Source: GeckoTerminal
Traders quickly piled into tokens with names referencing the game, its characters, and the fictional Vice City setting.
Several previously dead tokens reached multi-week highs as social media amplified a buying frenzy across crypto communities worldwide.
The reaction follows a familiar pattern. Whenever major entertainment events approach, themed meme coins typically experience parabolic moves driven by retail FOMO. As a result, traders chase quick gains tied to the cultural relevance of the underlying brand.
Rockstar Games-themed meme coins. Source: GeckoTerminal What Investors Must Know About These Meme Coins
Despite the explosive moves, Rockstar Games has not released any official tokens. Every meme coin riding the GTA 6 hype is a community-driven project with no formal connection to Rockstar, Take-Two Interactive, or the franchise itself.
That distinction matters enormously. Unofficial meme coins typically carry severe risks, including supply concentration, unaudited contracts, and the possibility of sudden rug pulls.
Also, regulatory uncertainty around unauthorized branding can trigger sudden token removals from major exchanges.
The lack of official endorsement does not stop the rally. Crypto markets historically reward narrative-driven speculation, especially around culturally significant brands.
However, traders chasing late entries face the highest risk of sharp reversals once the initial hype wave fully fades.
🚨 SCAM ALERT – #CryptoScam #MemeCoinScam #RugPull⛔️CSEC_1728: $GTAVIEpVHyKK8oxcLmp2C2NhAos1oDxgBNriw3wSLSozYpump⚠️ Axiom wallet bundle scam! 💀They sniped a big chunk of the supply at launch across a dozen wallets. Pump, dump, rotate. 💀☀️🔁REPOST🔁COMMENT🔁☀️ pic.twitter.com/bBGE73TZuT
— David Crypto Scam Hunter (@CryptoScamHuntO) June 18, 2026
History offers clear warnings. Similar-themed meme coin rallies tied to movies, sports events, and other gaming launches have ended with steep declines after the underlying catalyst has passed. Volume often collapses within days, leaving late buyers deeply underwater for months.
For now, the GTA 6 pre-orders announcement on June 25 stands as the next major catalyst.
Until then, meme coin volatility tied to the franchise will likely remain elevated. Investors should remember that the only confirmed news comes directly from Rockstar Games.

The ‘SpaceX exit liquidity’ narrative is everywhere since the IPO last week. Critics argue that the huge demand for SpaceX shares could let early investors, employees, or insiders sell stock at very high valuations while new buyers, especially retail investors, take the risk.
However, the S-1 filing, the lock-up calendar, and crypto futures positioning suggest the opposite, at least for now.
Who Can Sell SpaceX Shares Early?
It is critical to start with the supply side of the exit liquidity question. The offering sells only newly issued SpaceX shares. The company raised about $75 billion from 555.6 million new Class A shares, and the S-1 confirms that no existing holder sells at listing.
Every dollar goes to SpaceX itself, largely to fund its AI buildout. Many readers asking how to buy SpaceX IPO shares assume insiders sell to them directly. They do not.
SpaceX Stock Price Chart. Source: Google Finance
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Insiders keep roughly 95.8% of the equity. Elon Musk and certain significant investors agreed to a 366-day lock-up, an agreement that blocks sales for a set period. Employees face restrictions too.
Lower-tier staff, such as welders, became paper millionaires this week, but their equity stays frozen until the first release window after Q2 earnings. They cannot dump SpaceX stock today, no matter how much they want to.
The one true carve-out is a directed share program covering up to 5% of the IPO shares for individuals selected by executives. Even they reportedly sell only after the first earnings report, and they buy fresh stock at the offer price.
SpaceX Earnings Lock-In Data: BeInCrypto
So if nobody connected to SpaceX can sell today, who wants to sell later, and when does the door open?
The Billionaires Want Out, but the Lock-Up Sets the Date
The sellers in waiting are real, and this is where the SpaceX IPO exit liquidity story finds its grain of truth. Google or Alphabet holds about 5% of the company after the xAI merger diluted its earlier 6.11% stake.
That position could be worth up to $100 billion, a roughly 100x gain on its 2015 investment. They might want to liquidate some of that.
Early venture backers sound the same alarm.
Space Capital founder Chad Anderson told Fortune:
“We’ve been invested for almost ten years, it’s our business to return capital to investors.”
Yet, their exit runs through the SpaceX lock-up schedule. Up to 20% of eligible insider shares unlock after Q2 earnings, expected between mid July and September. Another 10% unlocks if SPCX holds 30% above the offer price for five of ten sessions. Five 7% tranches follow at 70, 90, 105, 120, and 135 days, with 28% more after Q3 earnings and full release at 180 days.
Unlock Schedule For SpaceX IPO Exit Liquidity Narrative: BeInCrypto
That metered supply meets a scheduled buyer. Nasdaq’s fast entry rule and MSCI’s early inclusion push index funds, and the retirement accounts behind them, to buy SpaceX stock within weeks of listing.
Passive inflows become standing demand for whatever insiders release. The financials explain why some may hurry.
SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in 2025 revenue with a $4.9 billion net loss, as Starlink’s $4.4 billion operating profit funded a $6.4 billion xAI loss. The SpaceX valuation sits near 94 times trailing sales, and Facebook’s staggered 2012 lock-up still ended 40% below its offer price.
Starlink made a total of $4.4 Billion of PROFIT in 2025 https://t.co/hXqWv75PpU
— Ark Invest Tracker (@ArkkDaily) June 9, 2026
Selling pressure is therefore scheduled, not imaginary.
SpaceX is valuing its company at $1.7 trillion based on the IPO offer price.If you consider revenue at $18bn, that means SpaceX is about 94 times sales.Context? Tesla is 15 times the sales.More context? NVIDIA is 21 times the sales.Use this information as you will.
— Kalu Aja (@FinPlanKaluAja1) June 8, 2026
Whether retail stands beneath it depends on who actually received the allocation.
Retail Was Cut Back, Not Loaded Up
If insiders planned to unload on small investors, the allocation should have maximized the retail bag. The opposite happened. Retail investors submitted more than $100 billion in orders to buy SpaceX IPO shares, exceeding the $75 billion deal size, and total demand reached 3.5 to 4 times the available stock.
SpaceX then cut the retail allocation to the low 20% range from a planned 30% because institutional appetite was strong. BlackRock alone ordered at least $5 billion, while sovereign funds took allocations of more than $1 billion each.
Mechanics weaken the bag-holder framing further. Fills were random or pro rata, depending on the broker, and brokers’ debit cash only for shares actually received. Anyone who failed to buy SpaceX shares in the offering simply keeps their money.
Selling Structure For Better Understanding: BeInCrypto
The exit liquidity story only works if retail ends up as the bag holder. That requires one of two traps. Either retail holds shares it cannot sell, or it got handed shares nobody else wanted.
SPCX retail escaped both, since it can sell from day one and received fewer shares than it ordered.

LAB jumped more than 19% in a single day, reclaiming the $17 area as whale wallets stacked fresh long positions. A parabolic curve on lower timeframes now points the token toward $19.
The move extends a recovery off the $7 support band, where larger holders defended price and printed a higher low. On-chain positioning and momentum readings now suggest buyers still hold the advantage.
LAB Token Daily Price Chart. Source: CoinGecko Whale Wallets Pile Into LAB Longs
Whale positioning leans heavily bullish. The notional long-to-short ratio is 260.67%, indicating long exposure outweighs shorts by roughly 2.6 times across 214 tracked whales.
The 129 long whales hold $27.58 million in positions at an average entry of $10.25. That cohort shows 92.24% profitability and $4.73 million in unrealized gains.
LAB whales overview. Source: X
The 85 short whales tell the opposite story. They hold $10.58 million at an average entry of $10.85, yet only 4.70% sit in profit, with $1.30 million in unrealized losses.
Short-term flow confirms the same bias. Over the past hour, 67 whales bought against 35 sellers, with net buy volume of $490,000 versus $179,000 in net selling.
This accumulation echoes recent whale buying across other altcoins. A sustained move below the $13 zone would be the first sign that longs are unwinding.
RSI Climbs Toward Overbought Territory
On the daily chart, LAB reclaimed the $16 area with a daily candle up more than 19%, extending the uptrend that began at the May 29 low after the price bounced off the $7 support band and printed a higher low (blue circle).
The token now tests the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement at $16.03 as resistance, with the 0.382 level near $18.84 standing as the next upside target if buyers hold control.
LAB daily chart. Source: Tradingview
Momentum supports the whale bias, though it carries a warning. The daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) reads near 65 and is rising into bullish territory.
On the hourly chart, RSI trades inside an ascending parallel channel and sits just above the midline. That structure leaves room for a push toward the channel’s overbought extreme.
LAB hourly RSI chart. Source: Tradingview
However, the advance comes on thin volume. A parabolic move into overbought conditions on weak participation often precedes sharp pullbacks. Therefore, the same readings that look bullish now could flip quickly if buyers fail to follow through.
LAB Price Prediction and the $13 Line
The hourly chart shows LAB tracking a steepening parabolic curve since the May 29 low. The token trades near $15.46 and is testing the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement at $16.03 as immediate resistance.
A clean break opens the path to the 0.382 Fibonacci level near $18.84, just below $19. That target is roughly 22% above the current price and aligns with the rally’s next logical resistance level.
LAB hourly chart. Source: Tradingview
Momentum favors that scenario in the near term. However, parabolic structures rarely hold for long, and the thin volume behind this leg keeps the risk of a fast reversal elevated.
The critical support is the 0.618 Fibonacci level at $13.21, the same $13 zone whales are watching. Losing it would invalidate the bullish thesis and expose the 0.786 level near $9.20.
Fundamentals add risk to the setup. A scheduled unlock of 282 million tokens in August could pressure a market still recovering from its June crash, when LAB fell 77% from its record high of $27.96.
For now, LAB price holds above support and eyes $19, but $13 remains the level that decides the trend.

Charles Hoskinson has returned with a plan to repair Cardano’s stalled governance system. The market is still unconvinced, as ADA price remains near $0.16, down 35% in a month.
The Cardano founder spent three videos in mid-June arguing that the network needs a new decision-making structure, a moderated Discord, and a voting bloc with enough power to pressure funding applicants into public accountability.
ADA holders have answered with the chart. The token remains near five-year lows after a steep monthly decline, even as Hoskinson says Cardano is approaching a decisive moment.
Cardano’s Governance Crisis Comes With a Price Tag
The backdrop is ugly. ADA has fallen roughly 32% over the past 30 days, while Cardano’s market value has slipped to about $6.3 billion.
The decline has arrived alongside deeper ecosystem stress. Analytics platform TapTools is winding down. Other Cardano builders have also stepped back. DRep fatigue has spread as governance votes become more contentious.
Hoskinson says the system has hit a bottleneck. By his count, Cardano faces more than 600 million ADA in funding requests against a 350 million ADA net change limit, with no agreed strategy to decide what should come first.
The failed treasury vote for a 2026 Cardano summit added to the tension. Several Delegated Representatives have also stepped back from active governance, feeding the view that Cardano’s new political system is already straining.
Dropping by to let everyone know that I spoke with @phillip_pon and we are working out a plan to create a discord for a great migration of the Cardano community from X. We can have happy, positive, well-moderated channels and leave behind the drama, lies, endless rage, and…
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) June 11, 2026
Hoskinson Wants the Fight Off X
Hoskinson says that Cardano’s governance problem starts with the venue.
He described X as a “broadcast channel” built for spectacle, where conflict gets rewarded, and serious compromise gets buried. In his view, that structure makes long-term decision-making almost impossible.
He used a blunt image to explain the problem.
“Would you go to a library where every day the people show up with pots and pans?”
His answer is a moderated Discord for governance discussion, modeled on Midnight’s community server. He says that space grew to about 49,000 members after bad-faith actors were removed.
The proposed Cardano version would use zero-knowledge technology so members can speak and vote without public attribution. Hoskinson says that would protect early ideas from harassment and retaliation.
A Voting Bloc With Teeth
The sharper part of the plan is political.
Hoskinson says he will register as a DRep and form what he calls a political party. Its rule would be direct.
“We will automatically vote no on all funding proposals unless they join and participate in the governance Discord.”
He frames the move as an accountability tool rather than a takeover. Anyone holding ADA could join, he says, and all final decisions would still require on-chain votes.
He also wants a new version of the Cardano constitution with clearer executive roles, elected authority, and defined growth targets. Without an agreed definition of growth, he argues, every budget fight will collapse into competing interpretations of success.
The commercial push is running in parallel. Hoskinson has pointed to RealFi, Bitcoin-focused work through Pogan, Blockfrost infrastructure, Midnight, Midgard, and the Leios scaling upgrade as proof that Cardano still has a growth path.
Leios is expected to reach testnet on June 23.
ADA Holders are Waiting for Proof
For now, the market is not treating the plan as a turning point.
ADA broke below support near $0.23 on June 2 and fell toward $0.157 by June 6, a level last seen in 2020. The heaviest volume came during the selloff, suggesting capitulation rather than orderly rotation.
The videos landed during a weak bounce. ADA briefly recovered toward $0.18, then slipped back near $0.17. It remains far below the $0.23 level that now acts as resistance.
Hoskinson says he does care about the token.
“Of course, I care about the price of ADA. The price of ADA is directly connected to the security and the utility of Cardano.”
His larger warning was even clearer.
“Cardano has to do or die.”
That line may capture the mood better than the plan itself. Hoskinson is asking the community to rebuild governance before the market loses patience. ADA holders appear to be waiting for evidence that the system can still produce growth.

Ethereum (ETH) derivatives and ETF flows have gone quiet at the same time, with options open interest, perpetual funding, and spot inflows all sitting near multi-month lows. Ethereum Price trades around $1,682, down nearly 5% on the day.
That broad calm arrives as the daily chart shows volatility compressing again after a sharp June flush. Quiet conditions like these often precede an outsized move, though the direction stays unresolved.
Derivatives Activity Has Drained Toward Multi-Month Lows
ETH options open interest across all exchanges has fallen to roughly $5.5 billion. That sits well below the $8.5 billion peaks recorded in January and March. Traders have closed out futures positions rather than adding new bets.
ETH options open interest. Source: Glassnode
Perpetual funding rates tell a similar story. After a brief negative spike near the early-June low, funding has flattened close to zero. Neither longs nor shorts hold a crowded edge right now.
ETH futures perpetual funding rate. Source: Tradingview
This combination points to washed-out positioning. Low open interest and neutral funding mean less leverage feeding the price. A clear catalyst could therefore move ETH quickly with little resistance.
ETF Flows Hint at Returning Demand
The bearish read has one complication. Spot Ethereum ETF net flows have stopped bleeding after months of steady outflows. June printed a handful of small green inflow days.
The amounts stay modest, well under the $250 million inflow spikes seen in January. However, the shift from persistent selling to mild buying matters. It suggests institutional demand is no longer pointed in one direction.
ETH US spot ETF net flows / Source: Tradingview
A sustained return of positive flows would strengthen the case that $1,500 marked a durable floor. Without it, the recent bounce risks fading.
Ethereum Price Prediction Hinges on $1,500 and $1,920
ETH lost two important supports in recent weeks. Price broke an ascending trendline and the $2,150 level on May 17. It then lost the descending channel and support near $1,920.
The decline reached roughly $1,500 before buyers stepped in. Ether has since bounced to retest the lower band of the descending channel near $1,750. That retest now acts as resistance.
Volume contracted through most of the year, spiked on the channel breakdown, then contracted again. The Bollinger Band Width Percentile shows the same pattern. Volatility compressed into June, spiked at the low, and is compressing once more.
ETH daily chart / Source: Tradingview
A rejection here could send ETH back toward $1,500, about 13% below current levels. Losing that floor would open lower targets and likely revive bearish predictions.
A $1,920 reclaim would flip the structure instead. That path points toward $2,150, roughly 25% above the current price, where prior resistance sits. Until then, the bearish structure holds the edge.
The setup leaves Ethereum coiled between a tested floor and stacked resistance. The next volatility expansion should decide which level breaks first.

Bitcoin (BTC) is carving out a possible floor near $60,000 as spot buyers step back in, yet on-chain valuation and profitability data confirm the market remains firmly in bear territory.
The recovery from the early June low has eased pressure on recent buyers without resolving it. Several indicators now point toward stabilization rather than a confirmed bottom.
BTC trades around $64,171, down 1% over the past 24 hours, with a market capitalization near $1.29 trillion.
Realized Losses Still Dominate Bitcoin Flows
The Realized Profit/Loss Ratio measures the dollar value of coins moving in profit against those moving at a loss. Readings below 1 show that loss realization is the prevailing force.
The 30-day average sits at 0.53, while the 90-day average holds at 1.10. That split confirms loss-taking has outpaced profit-taking across most of the past month.
BTC Realized Profit/Loss Ratio / Source: Glassnode
Valuation tells the same story. Glassnode places the True Market Mean at $77,200, roughly 15% above spot, so the on-chain regime stays bearish. Short-Term Holder MVRV has recovered to 0.90 but remains under the 1.0 breakeven line.
A sustained move in both averages toward 2 would be the first real signal that the bias is turning.
Spot Order Books Build a Bitcoin Floor Near $60K
The flow data leans bearish, yet spot liquidity has shifted in the opposite direction. That divergence is where the repair thesis begins.
Binance Spot Orderbook Depth Imbalance has moved decisively in favor of bids. Buy-side liquidity now outweighs resting sell orders by the widest margin in recent months.
BTC Spot Orderbook Depth Imbalance / Source: Glassnode
This suggests traders are positioning to absorb supply at lower prices rather than sell into rallies. Passive bids near the $60,000 region appear to be defending current support.
Open interest also compressed off its late-May peak, while funding cooled toward neutral. The deleveraging points to a more patient buyer base instead of crowded leverage.
Macro Index Flags Rare Deep Value for Bitcoin
A longer-term gauge adds weight to the stabilization case. The Capriole Macro Index Oscillator reads -2.03, one of the deepest prints in its history.
Analyst Charles Edwards notes prior visits to these depths were brief. They lasted about four months in late 2018 and two months in mid-2022. Both periods preceded major cycle recoveries.
“In the past 10 years Bitcoin has only spent 6 months at these levels of deep value (5% of time). That should be a great long-term opportunity… If you believe these will be solved, you probably love Bitcoin here.”
He balances the call with two caveats absent in earlier cycles. Edwards points to digital-asset-treasury risks and the looming quantum threat as open questions. That tension keeps the deep-value read constructive rather than a confirmed bottom.
Bitcoin Macro Index / Source: X Bitcoin Floor: Price Hinges on the $64K to $66K Zone
Price action remains neutral on the daily chart. Bitcoin broke down from a parallel ascending channel and reached its $59,000 to $60,000 target quickly.
That drop carried a sharp volume spike and an extreme volatility reading, confirming the flush rather than a slow bleed. The bounce since then has lifted the price into the $64,000 to $66,000 pivot.
This zone is the decisive level for the next move. A reclaim opens a path toward the lower channel band near the $74,000 to $76,000 resistance.
BTC daily chart / Source: Tradingview
A rejection here would likely trap Bitcoin in a range between $60,000 and $65,000. The $59,000 to $60,000 floor is the support that must hold, while the $74,000 to $76,000 caps any recovery attempt.
Whether the patient’s bid can outlast the weak profitability backdrop is the question that decides the next leg.

Anthropic and India’s Sarvam AI build rival artificial intelligence (AI) systems on different continents. Yet the two labs are quietly tied together, and the connection has nothing to do with their technology.
The link sits inside their cap tables. The same global investors that fund the maker of Claude have also placed money into India’s most prominent AI startup.
Lightspeed Anchors Both Companies
Lightspeed Venture Partners led Anthropic’s $3.5 billion Series E round in March 2025. The financing valued the Claude maker at $61.5 billion.
Indian corporate filings tell a parallel story. Lightspeed entities hold equity shares, preference shares, and convertible debentures in Axonwise Private Limited.
Sarvam AI Equity Shareholder List Showing Lightspeed Venture.Source: Official Filings
Axonwise is the legal entity behind Sarvam AI, which recently raised $234 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar founded the company in 2023. Therefore, the same firm anchors a frontier US lab and an Indian challenger at once.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
We're thrilled to announce that we have raised $234M in the first close of our $300M Series B at a $1.5B valuation.@HCLTech and @BessemerVP have joined us in this round, alongside continued support from @khoslaventures and @peakxvpartners For countries and companies,… pic.twitter.com/k3h1isqkRq
— Sarvam (@SarvamAI) June 15, 2026
General Catalyst’s Indian Backdoor
General Catalyst’s link to Sarvam runs through an acquisition. In 2024, the firm linked up with Venture Highway, an India-focused seed investor.
Venture Highway Fund III holds Series A convertible debentures in Sarvam. General Catalyst also backs Anthropic and Mistral AI in France. That places it across three of the most-watched AI labs.
Besides Anthropic, the same filings tie Sarvam to OpenAI as well. Khosla Ventures holds Sarvam equity and Series A preference shares. The firm was OpenAI’s first venture capital investor.
The shared backers do not make the AI firms partners. However, they show how concentrated AI funding has become. The same names increasingly decide which labs scale, from San Francisco to Bengaluru.
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Blockstream CEO and Hashcash inventor Adam Back argued this week that Bitcoin’s core mathematics represent a discovery, not an invention, and pushed back directly on claims that developer Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto. The remarks emerged from a social media exchange that revived one of crypto’s oldest debates.
The conversation started with a post by Todd, who said he discussed Bitcoin-like concepts with Back and Hal Finney as a teenager. Todd made the comment while criticizing proposed social media age restrictions in the UK.
Is Todd Satoshi?
Todd’s post did not amount to a Satoshi claim, despite headlines framing it that way. He argued that restricting teenagers from technical forums could cut off future innovators from the conversations that helped shape Bitcoin. The reference was to a “Bitcoin-like system” grounded in proof of work and decentralized design, not an admission of authorship.
When one user interpreted Back’s response as confirmation that Todd is Satoshi, Back rejected it directly.
no, it's no secret people were trying to discover bitcoin (then unnamed .. or i said "net cash") in 1997 already. https://t.co/Vh7nwv03dC
— Adam Back (@adam3us) June 18, 2026
Back confirmed, Todd took part in research communities where such ideas circulated long before Satoshi’s 2008 whitepaper. He pointed to a 1997 cypherpunks mailing list thread and a 2001 exchange between Todd and Finney on the peer-to-peer research list. Satoshi, moreover, contacted Back among the first people before publishing. Cypherpunks who built on those early ideas remain a vocal presence at Bitcoin events today.
Discovery, Not Invention
The broader argument centers on what kind of thing Bitcoin is. Back compared it to mathematical theorems and physical constants, things that exist within an extremely narrow design space that leaves no room for arbitrary choices.
“another discovery hallmark: bitcoin exists only in a narrow design space. more like pythagoras theorum, DNA, physical gold as commodity money. the discovery here being the scarce digital commodity,” says Back via X.
When critics argued that discoveries cannot exist in a narrow design space, Back held the opposite view. His position is that the narrowness is exactly what defines a discovery; the Pythagorean theorem works, and if you tweak it, it fails. DNA works the same way. Bitcoin, he argued, breaks whenever developers alter its core architecture, a pattern that mirrors physical law rather than software flexibility.
Critics counter that Bitcoin is a specific implementation without a clear spec, and that discouraging alternative node implementations in memory-safe languages reflects brittleness, not inevitability. Satoshi reportedly had to build the system before writing the whitepaper to verify it worked at all, a detail Back cites as further evidence that the design could not have taken a different form.
He denied being Satoshi when a 2026 Satoshi writing analysis named him the top candidate, a conclusion Saylor and others disputed. Some maintain that the Satoshi identity should stay unknown, while critics also noted the attention coincided with interest in Blockstream’s BSTR token project. Whether Bitcoin reflects discovery or design, the question Back raised cuts deeper than identity.

Midjourney, best known for its AI image generator, is pivoting into medical hardware. The company announced Midjourney Medical, a project to build a full-body scanner that delivers high-resolution internal imaging in under 60 seconds without radiation.
The announcement joins a growing wave of AI-driven bets on healthcare. Midjourney is one of several technology companies moving from software into medical diagnostics. This is an area that established players like Google Health and a range of AI-native startups have been targeting for years.
How the Ultrasonic CT Scanner Works
The device lowers users through a ring of half a million underwater ultrasonic sensors. These sensors fire sound waves through the body from every angle. Thousands of computers reconstruct how those waves shift at each tissue boundary into a full three-dimensional anatomical model.
This entire process happens at nearly 100 times the speed of a conventional MRI.
AI’s role in healthcare goes beyond faster imaging. Researchers increasingly describe it as a structural shift in medicine, with models already outperforming human pattern recognition in radiology, genomics, and pathology. Some argue that failing to use AI-assisted diagnosis could soon be considered negligence.
The optimism is substantial. In particular, in longevity science, experts suggest AI-driven drug discovery and early detection could enable cures for most diseases within 10 to 15 years. Some even claim that people alive today may avoid death from age-related diseases if progress continues.
The AI in healthcare research pipeline reflects this acceleration. Drug discovery timelines are shrinking, protein structure prediction is reshaping biology, and diagnostic tools are entering clinics faster than regulation can keep pace.
At the same time, companies across the stack, from hospital software providers to imaging startups, are competing for position. AI firms and policymakers increasingly view health and longevity as AI’s most valuable long-term application.
Midjourney’s scanner targets the data-collection layer. At this stage, frequent and accessible full-body imaging would feed the longitudinal health datasets. These datasets are what AI models need to detect change over time, rather than deliver a single diagnostic snapshot.
1 Billion Scans Per Month Through AI
Midjourney’s stated ambitions reflect the scale this shift is assumed to require. The company targets 50,000 scanners globally by 2031. With a combined capacity of 1 billion sessions per month, this would be enough to give regular scans to a significant share of the global population.
The company carries no external investors, funding development through existing product revenue. Despite broader AI sector valuation concerns, investment in AI-driven healthcare infrastructure continues to accelerate. This is because the potential returns in human health outcomes far exceed those of most software applications.

Altcoin sell pressure on spot exchanges has fallen to its deepest level since 2020, marking 15 straight months of net selling across the market outside Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Yet a separate CryptoQuant gauge points in the opposite direction. The platform’s 180-day Altcoin Season Index is edging toward a reading that historically signals the start of an altcoin season.
Two CryptoQuant Signals Pull in Opposite Directions
The metric tracks the cumulative difference between buy and sell volume for altcoins, excluding BTC and ETH. Its drop to the most negative level since 2020 indicates sustained net selling pressure on spot exchanges.
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Cryptoquant Altcoin Spot Buy and Sell Volume Difference Chart Showing 5-Year Low in Altcoin Sell Pressure. Source: CryptoQuant
The indicator nearly returned to flat in early 2025. It then reversed and continued to decline over the following months. According to CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech,
“This is not a dip. It’s 15 months of continuous net selling on Spot Exchanges.”
The Altcoin Season Index offers the counterweight. CryptoQuant’s 180-day version is 18.48. According to an analyst, “altcoin season begins in earnest” once the indicator crosses 20. The gap suggests rotation building rather than running.
The 180 days Altcoin Season Index is at 18.48.Once this indicator surpasses 20, the altcoin season begins in earnest. We are currently standing at the start line of the altcoin season.During the recent downturn, the decline in altcoins was relatively small. Preparations for… pic.twitter.com/oSIDWTJhgm
— CW (@CW8900) June 16, 2026
Analysts Split on Altcoin Season Prospects
Joao Wedson, founder of Alphractal, argued that many altcoins that suffered steep declines through 2025 and early 2026 may avoid setting new record lows.
He said a large share of the market has already entered the cycle’s “depression” phase, a period when many investors exit while large holders quietly accumulate.
“The rise in BTC Dominance should come mainly from the top 20 altcoins and stablecoins. This does not mean that all altcoins are going to die. It means that capital will rotate in a very selective way,” he said.
In contrast, Crypto Kid takes the bearish side. The trader says a true altcoin season needs the kind of money printing that drove the 2020 and 2021 cycle. He placed that window around 2028 or 2029.
The two signals leave the near-term path unsettled. One shows altcoins under their heaviest sustained selling in five years. The other shows a rotation gauge approaching its trigger. The next move may hinge on whether selective accumulation or the wait for looser policy proves correct.
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Matt Damon will take the stage at Ripple Swell in New York City this October. He will represent Water.org, the non-profit he co-founded to address the global water crisis.
The actor and entrepreneur will speak at the event from October 27 to 29. Water.org has delivered water and sanitation access to more than 70 million people since its founding. His participation connects mainstream celebrity philanthropy directly to blockchain payments infrastructure. It also signals growing overlap between humanitarian funding and digital payment systems.
Matt Damon, co-founder of @Water, is coming to Ripple Swell — October 27-29 in NYC.What connects cross-border payments and clean water for 200 million people?He's going to tell you how @Water is leveraging Ripple Payments and $RLUSD to accelerate money movement and drive… pic.twitter.com/8lsnlbsvvw
— Ripple Swell (@RippleSwell) June 17, 2026
Ripple. Source: X RLUSD Powers Water.org’s Cross-Border Funding Push
Water.org launched its Get Blue campaign at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026. The initiative targets safe water access for 200 million people by 2030. At Swell, Damon will detail how the organization uses Ripple Payments and RLUSD to accelerate that mission.
Ripple serves as Get Blue’s exclusive digital asset and payments partner. Specifically, Ripple routes Ripple USD (RLUSD) across blockchain rails in minutes, delivering capital far faster than traditional wire transfers. As a result, local lending partners across Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa receive seed funding more quickly.
Schwartz Previews Ripple Swell
Meanwhile, Ripple CTO David Schwartz indicated that Swell 2026 in NYC will be the company’s largest event to date. For the first time, the annual conference merges with the XRPL Apex developer summit. This combination brings institutional finance leaders and blockchain builders together under one roof.
I hear this will be the largest @RippleSwell yet. I wouldn't miss it.The best part of these events is always seeing the new ways people are using XRP and building on the XRP Ledger. Looking forward to diving into core use cases around payments, tokenization, interoperability,… pic.twitter.com/yFsy1XF4LS
— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) June 17, 2026
David Schwartz. Source: X
Organizers expect more than 1,500 attendees across three stages and over 50 sessions. Schwartz said he looks forward to showcasing new XRP Ledger (XRPL) innovations at the event. The conference agenda will emphasize advanced payments, asset tokenization, interoperability, decentralized finance (DeFi), and artificial intelligence (AI).
XRPL Ambitions Extend Beyond Payments
Furthermore, this lineup reflects Ripple’s strategy to position the XRPL as a foundation for institutional finance. Ripple has deployed more than $550 million into XRPL ecosystem development since 2017, reinforcing its long-term commitment to the network.
XRP Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
XRP remains one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with its XRP price movements closely watched by investors ahead of the October event. As Swell approaches, the announcements will determine whether XRP price action gains fresh momentum among developers and investors.

“We’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.” Donald Trump said that at the same press conference where he announced the US-Iran peace deal, leaving traders holding a ceasefire that comes with an explicit threat wired into it.
On the latest peace deal, Brent crude fell substantially while gold, the S&P 500 hit a record, and Bitcoin spiked thanks to the Strait of Hormuz reopening. This removed the supply shock that had sent oil above $100 a barrel earlier this year. But Trump attached a condition to every one of those moves.
What Markets Saw the Last Time Trump Changed His Mind
This situation has a preview. In April, Trump announced a ceasefire, markets celebrated, and then the deal collapsed. When hostilities resumed, Brent peaked at $126 a barrel, its wartime high. Stocks sold off, and gold spiked toward $4,800. Bitcoin dropped as risk appetite collapsed across the board. The April ceasefire taught traders that pricing in peace before it holds is a trap.
Oil Prices, Gold, and Bitcoin in a Deal Collapse Scenario
Brent crude peaked at $126 at the height of the conflict. It sits close to $75 today, June 18. That gap is the peace premium markets are now holding. If Trump follows through on his threat, that premium unwinds fast, with oil likely retracing toward conflict-era levels.
The conflict began in March, sending Oil prices skyward and into a constant state of flux. Image Source: Trading Economics
Gold climbed on the peace announcement but peaked near $4,800 during the worst of the fighting. A return to hostilities puts that ceiling back in play.
Bitcoin has been here before: it rallied 3% on the deal but fell sharply each time Trump escalated earlier this year. At around $64,000 today, it is pricing a calmer macro environment. That assumption sits on the same fragile foundation as the rest.
If the deal holds, the IEA expects global oil supply to recover from 102.4 to 110.3 million barrels per day in 2027, turning the worst energy supply shock in decades into a potential glut. That outcome requires exactly what Trump has now made conditional.
Markets have done their job and priced in peace. The next move belongs entirely to Tehran, and to whether Trump decides the deal is worth keeping.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, as well as VGW, a firm that operates online casino-style games.
The lawsuits accuse the companies of running unlicensed, illegal sports betting and gambling across the state.
What Kentucky Attorney General Alleges
Coleman alleges that the prediction market platforms allow users to wager on game winners, point spreads, and player statistics. He says they skip the consumer protections and taxes that state gambling laws require.
The complaint claims that sports betting accounted for roughly 70% of Kalshi’s trading volume during a 2025 sample period. In addition, of the nearly $23 billion in contract volume last year, 89% came from sports wagering.
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Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws. These multi-billion dollar corporations and their legal fictions don’t pass the sniff test.More: https://t.co/tFeKWMzeKo pic.twitter.com/4yMGwWUQuj
— Attorney General Russell Coleman (@kyoag) June 17, 2026
The action followed a coalition representing both platforms suing Kentucky, challenging its new tax and contracting restrictions.
“Kentucky’s attempt to impose a 14.25% excise tax whenever any Kentucky resident purchases an event contract anywhere in the country, and whenever any resident from any State purchases an event contract while physically present in Kentucky, plainly ‘concerns’ or ‘regards’ exchange-traded derivatives falling within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” the document reads.
Platforms Point to Federal Regulations
Meanwhile, Kalshi pointed to its federal oversight in a statement shared with BeInCrypto.
“Kalshi is a federally regulated exchange. The CFTC is our regulator, not the states. Courts have already recognized this, and we’re confident they will here too,” Kalshi spokesperson, Jacki McGavick, mentioned.
Polymarket echoed that position in a statement to BeInCrypto.
“This action runs counter to the CFTC’s established framework for regulating prediction markets. We look forward to addressing these claims through the appropriate legal process,” a Polymarket spokesperson said.
A VGW spokesperson also stated that the firm plans to defend itself vigorously against the lawsuit.
“We respectfully reject the Kentucky Attorney General’s claims and plan to vigorously defend this lawsuit. We have lawfully operated in the US for more than a decade, delivering online Social Plus games to millions of Americans who value the freedom to enjoy the free, fun entertainment that this lawsuit effectively targets. With values including ‘our players come first’ and ‘we do what’s right’, we pride ourselves on creating not only the best games, player experiences and entertainment, but ensuring this is done safely and responsibly with robust consumer protections,” the spokesperson shared with BeInCrypto.
States that move against prediction markets have met resistance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The agency argues that it holds sole authority over event contracts. The CFTC has already sued several states, including Arizona and Minnesota.
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BeInCrypto spoke with 8Blocks to understand why many token economies lose control after launch, even when early demand looks strong. The answer often starts before listing, in the way teams connect the token with product use, treasury planning, and long-term circulation.
Early token launches can look stronger than they are. Allocation demand, investor appetite, listing attention, and market-making support often arrive at once, creating chart activity before the product has proved it can generate lasting demand for the token.
The problem begins when the launch becomes the core economic event. After the first campaign, the token needs a role inside the product and a reason to unlock user value. Otherwise, demand depends on buyers expecting a higher price.
According to 8Blocks, many projects reduce token economy design to allocation tables and unlock schedules while leaving the token far from the business model. Its positioning centers on tokenized economic systems where demand comes from usage and economic control stays with the company.
Utility lies within product use
Real utility comes from repeated action inside the product.
In GameFi, utility can come from gameplay assets and resource markets. In RWA, it can come from asset access or investor permissions. The category changes, but the principle stays the same. The token needs a reason to move through the product.
When product demand is weak, trading activity starts to carry the economy. Early holders wait for price growth, reward users sell into liquidity, airdrop farmers leave after claiming, and investors treat each unlock as the next supply event. Over time, every product update is judged through the chart rather than through usage.
Supply planning helps, but only up to a point. Allocation tables show where tokens go, vesting schedules show when they enter circulation, and emissions show how new supply appears. These elements manage supply; demand needs its own design.
Where control breaks
Control usually weakens in two places.
Distribution pressure appears when deep discounts and short locks make fundraising easier while giving early holders a fast exit incentive. Oversized reward pools add the same pressure. A token may gain early liquidity and then face predictable supply waves across the first year.
Empty utility creates the second break. Vague governance rights and badge-style perks rarely carry demand on their own. When users receive product value while bypassing the token, the token becomes optional. Optional tokens rely on belief. Belief changes faster than product adoption.
It is important to review the core model across emissions, vesting, utility, and token flows to locate weak assumptions.
Sector examples
In GameFi, reward pressure appears fast when players earn more tokens than the game gives them reasons to spend. Stronger designs connect rewards with gameplay progress, staking, NFT minting, resource mining, upgrades, and loot markets, so player activity creates token use instead of pure extraction.
In RWA, the token has to follow the asset and the rights attached to it. Real estate, commodities, invoices, export contracts, and other tokenized assets need models built around ownership records, investor access, settlement flows, custody, and liquidity.
In DeFi, weak utility often appears when staking, governance, rewards, and liquidity incentives operate as separate mechanics. A stronger model links token use with product activity, so borrowing, lending, liquidity provision, fee flows, and protocol participation support one economic system.
In social and community platforms, tokens often fail when rewards are paid mainly for attention. More durable models connect token use with access, reputation, creator monetization, moderation rights, premium features, and community ownership, so participation feeds product value rather than short-term farming.
Audit before pressure
Waiting until the chart breaks makes reform harder. By then, early holders may already be selling, new buyers may be waiting on the sidelines, and every unlock becomes a public test of confidence.
A pre-launch review gives founders an early view of unlock pressure, weak utility, treasury exposure, and demand mechanics before these issues reach the market. It also helps test whether rewards support product activity or create sell pressure, whether vesting matches real milestones, and whether treasury actions have enough room to support the economy through the first year.
A post-launch audit separates market mood from economic design and shows which problems come from sentiment, supply timing, weak utility, or poor circulation. The output should work in investor conversations as well as internal planning. Investors want more than slogans around utility. They want to see circulation, emissions, treasury policy, unlock risk, and user demand in a model they can understand.
A note on 8Blocks
8Blocks works with Web3-native teams and Web2 businesses entering Web3, building token economies around product use, financial modeling, investor due diligence, and launch strategy. Its starting point is the role of the token inside the business. When a tradable token adds little value, another on-chain format can serve the product better.
Its tokenomics work covers supply, issuance, allocation, vesting, treasury storage, reward design, liquidity management, token sale planning, and token flow modeling.
The service mix also matches different stages of a token project. Strategic consulting supports investor materials, partner selection, TGE preparation, and market entry. Tokenomics audits review emissions, utility, vesting, pool allocation, formulas, projections, and token flows.
Moreover, workshops help early teams test demand sources before full development, while Token Lab gives founders a fast way to review allocation, vesting, unlocks, and early sell pressure.
Utility as control
The healthiest token economies connect business activity with token demand. Usage creates a reason to use or return tokens. Circulation then supports the product and company through each reward cycle. The model can still face market cycles, but the project has tools beyond narrative management.
Speculation will always exist in open crypto markets. The goal is to avoid making speculation the main engine. Tokens need a role inside the product and a modeled supply path before launch.
As Sergey Novikov, CPO at 8Blocks puts it, “Unlocks, emissions, and community rewards aren’t the problem by themselves. The problem starts when new supply enters the market and the product can’t create enough demand to absorb it.”
Projects lose control when the token becomes an asset people hold only because someone else may buy it later. They regain control when users need the token inside real activity and when growth feeds demand rather than sell pressure.

Tech workers who used artificial intelligence (AI) less than monthly faced triple the layoff risk of peers who used it at least monthly, according to Gallup’s survey.
The finding points to a divide inside an industry already showing higher layoff exposure than others. It suggests regular AI use, not just role or sector, helped shape who kept their job.
Why AI Non-Users Were More Exposed
Gallup asked both employed and unemployed adults how often they use/used AI at work. The results showed that workers who had been laid off were less likely to use AI than those who remained employed.
About 62% of laid-off workers reported using AI once a year or less, compared with 50% of currently employed workers. Meanwhile, 28% of employed respondents said they use AI frequently, versus 22% of those who had lost their jobs.
Gallup called the gap statistically significant. The pattern held after the firm accounted for age, education, industry, and time since each layoff.
“Workers who are AI non-users appear to have been more vulnerable in the job market,” Gallup said.
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Where the AI Layoffs Hit Hardest
Technology workers already carry outsized risk. They made up 13% of laid-off workers but only 6% of the employed workforce.
Within that group, those using AI less than monthly were three times more likely to lose their jobs than monthly users. Across the wider workforce, the same link appeared, though weaker.
“This finding suggests that, within technology, an industry already showing higher layoff exposure than other industries, workers who had not made AI a regular part of their work faced greater risk. Across the rest of the workforce, AI use is also associated with lower layoff risk, but the pattern is stronger in the tech sector,” the survey revealed.
Tech Workers Who Sit Out the AI Wave Face Triple the Layoff Risk. Source: Gallup
Still, a few workers blamed the technology directly. Only 1% named AI as the primary cause, even as 21% of employees reported that their employers cut staff in early 2026.
Gallup framed AI use as one indicator of a workforce’s readiness for change. The coming quarters may show whether non-users continue to face steeper odds.
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Uniswap (UNI) network activity climbed to multi-month highs this week after Standard Chartered set a $100 price target for the token.
The development also pushed the token to record its strongest trading sessions of 2026. On-chain metrics from Santiment show the shift coincided with institutional validation rather than a protocol upgrade.
Uniswap’s On-Chain Activity Hits Multi-Month Highs
Santiment data showed that active addresses reached their highest level in four months. Whale transactions also surged, reaching a seven-month high.
“Uniswap’s network activity has only continued to heat up following the Standard Chartered $100 $UNI forecast,” Santiment wrote.
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Uniswap Active Addresses and Whale Transaction Count Chart. Source: X/Santiment
On-chain metrics showed significant growth in new users. Uniswap recorded 594 new wallet addresses on Tuesday, the highest daily increase since December 30, 2025.
Social engagement followed a similar trend. Discussions surrounding UNI spiked, pushing the token’s social dominance to its highest level since March 30, according to Santiment.
The altcoin was not left out. UNI jumped roughly 24% on June 16, one of its strongest sessions of 2026. Trading volume that day topped $621 million.
“The catalyst behind the move was not a new protocol upgrade or governance proposal. Instead, investors responded to a major shift in institutional sentiment. Standard Chartered…issued one of the most aggressive long-term forecasts ever published for a major DeFi token. The report immediately put UNI back into the spotlight and sparked renewed discussion about decentralized finance’s role in the future of global markets,” the firm said.
However, the momentum has since cooled. UNI traded near $3.09 on Thursday, down 11.8% over 24 hours, though still up about 24% on the week.
Uniswap (UNI) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
The pullback tracked a broader market decline. The Federal Reserve held rates on June 17, but a hawkish shift pushed risk assets lower.
Whether the activity holds depends on actual adoption. Standard Chartered’s roadmap points to $6.50 in 2026 before reaching $100 in 2030, leaving a wide gap between the data and the price.
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Rodney Burton, also known as Bitcoin Rodney, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge tied to HyperFund, a $1.8 billion crypto fraud that drew in investors worldwide.
The 56-year-old entered the plea in a federal court. He now faces up to five years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for July 23.
Inside the HyperFund Crypto Fraud
According to prosecutors, HyperFund marketed itself as a crypto investment platform. It promised members who purchased HyperFund “memberships” daily returns of 0.5% to 1%, funded in part from cryptocurrency mining revenues.
Those mining operations never existed. The global wire-fraud operation instead siphoned roughly $1.8 billion from investors worldwide.
“HyperFund, which purported as a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform, but in truth, was a global wire-fraud scheme that obtained $1.8 billion from victim-investors worldwide,” the press release read.
The incident reflects a wider trend in crypto, where rising cyberattacks are accompanied by increasingly complex scams targeting digital asset holders.
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Burton’s Role and What Comes Next
According to court documents, Burton “conspired to provide unlicensed money transmitting services to promote HyperFund” between June 2020 and January 2022. At the same time, he profited from the funds.
Investigators said he controlled multiple entities presented as consulting firms but that allegedly operated as unauthorized money-transmission businesses. Through these operations, Burton received at least $7.85 million, including funds traced to HyperFund investors in Maryland.
His guilty plea follows earlier action against three HyperFund operators, including co-founder Sam Lee. The case adds to a widening list of crypto prosecutions reaching US courts this year. Burton will learn his sentence on July 23 before US District Judge Richard Bennett.
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CME Group will sue the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over its approval of crypto perps in the US, CEO Terrence Duffy announced on CNBC. Duffy, who steps down in March 2027, said he has spent eight months building the case with his board and will not back down.
The CFTC approved prediction market platform Kalshi in late May to offer Bitcoin perpetual futures, the first time the product class was permitted on a US-regulated exchange. Perpetual futures, commonly known as perps, are contracts with no expiration date, letting traders speculate on price movements indefinitely without owning the underlying asset.
CME’s Case: Perps Are Swaps, Not Futures
CME’s legal argument rests on the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform law passed after the 2008 crash. CME argues that perps meet the legal definition of a swap, a bilateral contract traded directly between parties rather than on a public exchange, not a futures contract, and that the CFTC approved the wrong product type for the wrong kind of venue.
CME says it holds exclusive benchmark licenses for major price indices, and if crypto perps qualify as swaps, CME argues, any contract referencing those benchmarks must route through its infrastructure.
“We have an exclusive license with every single provider of the benchmarks,” Duffy told CNBC’s Fast Money. “They would have to list them as swaps, if that’s the way it came out.”
CME plans to file the lawsuit on June 18. CFTC chair Michael Selig had earlier told the same program: “It’s time to approve regulated futures contracts that have no expiration date.”
Kalshi’s Bitcoin perp crossed $1 billion in trading volume within days of its May launch, a milestone its original prediction market business took 40 months to reach.
What’s the CME Lawsuit Impact?
Before May 2026, no US-regulated platform offered crypto perps, pushing American traders toward offshore exchanges to access the product. The CFTC’s approval of Kalshi, and then Coinbase, opened that market for the first time.
If CME wins, the US perps market faces two scenarios: the product gets blocked entirely, or it gets reclassified as a swap and rerouted through CME’s own rails. Traders who have already moved to the new platforms face an uncertain timeline.
Crypto perps grew faster than any product in Kalshi’s history, and the CFTC approved them anyway. Now the oldest institution in US derivatives trading wants them rerouted through its own infrastructure. The courts decide next.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI both hit all-time highs on June 18 as Asia shrugged off Wall Street’s worst Federal Reserve day under a new Fed chair since 1994. Kevin Warsh held rates steady at his debut meeting, but his committee’s updated forecasts sent a very different message.
The Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. But the updated dot plot, the Fed’s chart showing where each official expects interest rates to end up, showed the median year-end projection rising to 3.8%, up from 3.4% in March.
Nikkei and KOSPI Both Set Records
Asian markets opened Thursday on a different footing. Japan’s Nikkei 225 crossed 71,000 for the first time in the index’s history, while the broader Topix also rose. South Korea’s KOSPI also climbed to a record of its own, with SK Hynix jumping 3.45% after the company shipped samples of its next-generation AI memory chip, HBM4E, to key customers including Nvidia. Samsung Electronics added 1.23%.
The Nikkei is up almost 40% YTD. Image Source: Trading View Warsh’s Hawkish Turn and Crypto’s Headwind
On June 17, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow all dropped in stark contrast to Asian markets. All 11 sectors of the index ended lower, and the 2-year Treasury yield surged 16 basis points, or 0.16 percentage points, to 4.22%.
“The Fed held rates steady but spoiled the mood with a much more hawkish dot plot,” said Sonu Varghese, chief macro strategist at Carson Group.
Warsh also abstained from submitting his own rate forecast, leaving the committee’s direction harder to read. Nine of 18 Fed officials now project at least one hike before year-end.
For crypto, the shift carries direct weight. Bitcoin and other risk assets track global liquidity closely, and tighter monetary conditions are a headwind.
Asia is shrugging off the Fed’s signal for now. If Warsh follows through with a hike, that divergence may not last.