For years, users looking to speed up their transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain relied on a handy optional feature that essentially says, “I might want to replace this transaction with a higher fee.”
But what started as a helpful tool has become redundant and a small privacy issue, prompting some developers to discuss possible ways to do away with it.
Let’s first take a look at the so-called replace-by-fee (RBF) signaling, then discuss the developers’ proposals.
Replace by fee (RBF) signaling
Imagine sending a paper check through the mail, but the postal system is stretched and congested. To ensure your payment doesn’t get stuck, the check has a small checkbox that says, “I reserve the right to cancel this check and write a new one with a higher rush fee if it gets delayed.” (The higher fee, of course, is an incentive for the postal system to prioritize your transaction.)
Such a feature is called Replace-by-Fee (RBF) in the Bitcoin ecosystem. For years, when you sent bitcoin, your wallet let you flip a switch, signaling to the network that you might want to “fee-bump” to speed up your transaction later.
Bitcoin (BTC) could tumble by over 60% to under $24,000 in 2026, according to technical analyst Jesse Olson, if the stock market experiences a major crash.
Key takeaways:
A US stock market crash of over 50% may accelerate BTC’s sell-off.
Negative Coinbase premium and persistent ETF outflows hint at de-risking among institutional investors.
In a Sunday post, Olson shared a two-week Bitcoin chart showing BTC potentially falling toward $23,980, based on a long-term volume-weighted support line from his proprietary Market Sniper Pro VWAP indicator.
The yellow line on the chart represents a custom version of anchored volume-weighted average price (aVWAP), a tool traders use to track the average price of an asset, weighted by volume, from a specific starting point.
In Bitcoin’s case, Olson appears to have anchored the line from the 2022 bear market bottom, allowing it to slope forward as a potential long-term support zone.
Olson presented the $23,980 level as his base-case Bitcoin forecast in a severe macro sell-off, wherein the stock market drops by over 50%. The type of stress Olson warns about is already being flagged by veteran market observers.
For instance, GMO co-founder Jeremy Grantham has called the ongoing AI market boom a major speculative bubble. While Michael Burry has compared the current rally to the final stages of the Dot-com mania.
Related: Arthur Hayes dumps HYPE, NEAR as he warns of AI IPO wave
Economist Gary Shilling has also warned that a US recession is “almost inevitable” by year-end, with stocks at risk of a 20%–30% decline.
BTC often trades like a high-risk asset during market stress. A deep stock-market sell-off could force investors to cut crypto exposure, turning Olson’s $23,980 level into a key downside level to watch.
Bitcoin institutional demand remains weak
Another bearish signal comes from the Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks Bitcoin’s price gap between Coinbase and Binance.
A positive premium usually points to stronger US institutional demand, while a negative reading suggests weaker professional buying or heavier selling on Coinbase.
In Bitcoin’s case, the index has largely remained negative so far in 2026, showing that institutional buyers are still not stepping in with conviction.
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index vs. price. Source: CryptoQuant/Darkfost
Spot Bitcoin ETFs are showing a similar trend. Since May, the US-based funds have recorded $4.68 billion in net outflows, according to SoSoValue data, reflecting weaker demand from professional investors and other ETF buyers.
US Bitcoin ETF net flows. Source: SoSoValue
“These investors don’t act like retail,” said Darkfost, a CryptoQuant-associated on-chain analyst, in a Sunday post, adding:
“They operate under permanent risk management logic, they’re not looking to buy a potential bottom, they’re looking for confirmation, for performance. And that’s not the case yet.”
In the past, multiple analysts, including Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn and pseudonymous trader Crypto Kid, have said Bitcoin could decline below $30,000 in the event of a stock market crash.
The pair maintained most of its gains despite fresh instability in the US-Iran war, with Tehran once again closing the Strait of Hormuz oil route and placing the current peace deal in doubt.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon lay at the heart of the stand-off, with Iran warning that last week’s ceasefire could unravel entirely as a result. US President Donald Trump responded with defiant rhetoric.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social, threatening “harder” strikes on Iran.
Source: Truth Social
Hours before US futures markets were due to open, crypto traders were predictably cautious.
“$BTC is pumping with rising geopolitical tensions, very suspicious,” trader Lennaert Snyder commented on X.
Snyder nonetheless saw a potential move to $66,000 as part of the current uptick, predicting an “interesting week” for Bitcoin.
Fellow trader Killa, meanwhile, warned that history favored the week’s high coming sooner rather than later.
“Monday hasn’t been kind to $BTC lately,” they told X followers.
“Over the past six weeks, 6 out of 6 Mondays have marked a local pivot high before price moved lower.”
BTC/USD chart with Monday peaks marked. Source: Killa/X
Binance spot market sellers keep up pressure
Analysis of exchange order books produced further misgivings.
Related: Bitcoin tipped for Q3 ‘macro bottom’ near $50K as major liquidity grab looms
Commentator Exitpump said that short interest on Binance meant that it was the derivatives markets behind the latest price rise.
“Despite price slowly grinding higher, Binance spot continues to sell into the move. Mostly perps driven move up,” they wrote on Saturday.
BTC/USD 10-minute chart with order-book data (Binance). Source: Exitpump/X
Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on persistent “aggressive” sell pressure from Binance keeping bulls in check.
CME is arguing that perps are harmful to its long-dated futures products. The lawsuit alleges that the CFTC did not consider the ramifications of approving perps, and that these products are actually “swaps” as defined by the Dodd-Frank Act, and not “futures.”
Each term carries implications for how the products themselves are to be regulated and what the requirements are for the companies issuing them are. CME CEO Terrence Duffy, who recently announced he’s stepping down next year, told CNBC last week that the distinction mandates different rules for participants.
“The CFTC did not engage in its own analysis of whether its approval of Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual as a future is consistent with law,” CME’s lawsuit said. “The CFTC did not even mention the relevant Dodd-Frank provision defining ‘swap.’ Indeed, the word ‘swap’ appears nowhere in the Order.”
The CFTC instead just “rubberstamped Kalshi’s application,” the lawsuit claimed.
What’s interesting is that the actual landscape of companies securing designated contract market (DCM) approvals and moving into perps is growing quite rapidly. On the same day the CFTC granted Kalshi’s application, it sent a no-action letter to Coinbase, seemingly opening the door for that exchange to list perps as well — albeit through an offshore intermediary.
Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen roughly 50% since Michael Saylor’s Strategy launched Stretch (STRC), its flagship Bitcoin-funding vehicle, in late July 2025.
BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: TradingView
Key takeaways:
STRC is acting like a classic Ponzi scheme, argue Peter Schiff and other critics.
Other analysts disagree, noting that STRC’s drop below the $100 par is due to a leverage wipeout.
Critics say STRC looks like a “classic centralized Ponzi”
STRC was designed to trade near its $100 par value, enabling Strategy to raise capital to buy more Bitcoin. The instrument is now trading at a deep discount, suggesting that the BTC buying channel is under pressure.
On Thursday, STRC fell to a record low of $82.53 before closing at $88.59, still below the $100 par value.
STRC daily chart. Source: TradingView
Launched in July 2025, STRC was designed to trade near par through adjustable dividends, currently 11.5% annualized, with proceeds used primarily to acquire Bitcoin.
The widening discount has pushed STRC’s effective yield above 12.9% and contributed to a pause in at-the-market share issuance. That risks slowing down the capital-raising flywheel behind Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury, which now holds more than 846,000 BTC.
In finance, a “flywheel” is a self-reinforcing business model where growth in one metric directly helps grow another, compounding momentum.
But trading 13% below par has revived criticism of Strategy’s funding model.
Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has repeatedly described STRC as “a classic centralized Ponzi,” arguing that it depends on Strategy’s ability to raise fresh capital through new share sales or sell Bitcoin to meet obligations.
Source: X/Peter Schiff
Crypto trader DonAlt also questioned STRC’s recent price action, asking why the instrument was “trading like a Ponzi” after its sharp move below par.
Strategy has not directly addressed this in recent statements, instead continuing to present STRC as preferred equity supported by its Bitcoin-focused treasury strategy.
However, the company has moved STRC to a semi-monthly dividend schedule, with payouts now designed to occur twice a month rather than monthly.
Strategy’s Bitcoin buying pace slows as STRC slumps
The pace of Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation has slowed sharply as STRC trades below par value.
The company added 1,550 BTC for $101 million in the week ending June 8 and another 1,587 BTC for $100 million in the week ending June 15, lifting total holdings to 846,842 BTC.
Those were meaningful purchases, but they were far smaller than Strategy’s weekly buys earlier in 2026.
For instance, in April, Strategy bought 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion in a single week. In May, it added another 24,869 BTC for roughly $2.01 billion. By contrast, June’s weekly additions have been closer to $100 million each.
The slowdown also coincided with a small but notable 32 BTC sale earlier in June, worth about $2.5 million, to help cover dividend obligations.
The sale was tiny compared with Strategy’s overall Bitcoin treasury, but it showed that cash obligations can still force limited BTC sales when STRC-led funding becomes less efficient.
The STRC sell-off looked more like a leverage wipeout than a deterioration in Strategy’s fundamentals, according to Jesse Myers, head of Bitcoin strategy at The Smarter Web Company.
“Strategy is fine,” he said in a Thursday post, adding that the company could pay STRC dividends for 32 years if conditions remain unchanged, and indefinitely if Bitcoin appreciates at roughly 2% annually.
STRC’s long stretch near $99–$100 encouraged investors to use heavy leverage, with some assuming the instrument would stay above $95. Once the price slipped, margin calls and forced selling accelerated the decline.
The discount may also attract income buyers, according to analyst Scott Melker.
In a Sunday post, he noted that STRC’s dividends are based on the $100 liquidation preference, not the market price. At an 11.5% dividend rate, buyers at $90 earn about 12.8%, while buyers at $85 earn roughly 13.5%.
Source: X/Scott Melker
At current prices, STRC offers an effective yield of about 13%. Strategy may announce its next dividend rate on June 30, while retaining other options, including MSTR share issuance and cash reserves, to fund its Bitcoin purchases.
Bitcoin steadied near $64,000 over the weekend, clawing back part of Friday’s drop, as traders weighed the start of US-Iran ceasefire talks against a renewed threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The token traded around $64,200 on Sunday, up 0.9% over 24 hours but roughly flat on the week, per CoinDesk data, after dropping below $63,000 on Friday. Most majors firmed alongside it.
Ether rose 0.5% on the day and 3.3% on the week to $1,734, solana gained 1.5% to $73 and tron added 1.2%. Hyperliquid’s HYPE slipped 2% on the day but remains the week’s standout, up 14.8%. Dogecoin was the weakest major, down 4.9% over seven days.
Bitcoin has gone nowhere on net this week, rallying early on the signed Iran deal, selling off Friday in a broad risk-off move, and stabilizing over the weekend.
The weekend’s focus is Switzerland, where US and Iranian officials, including Vice President JD Vance, are due to open talks on a permanent ceasefire, per Bloomberg.
The negotiations follow the memorandum of understanding President Donald Trump signed last week, which set a 60-day window that can be extended.
The setup was built over several weeks, where the attacker deployed dozens of fake token contracts and fake liquidity pools – a term for a pile of tokens locked on a decentralized exchange – that looked like profitable trades. Some mimicked familiar assets such as wrapped ether (WETH), and dollar-pegged stablecoins USDC and USDT.
That bait did what it was supposed to do. Jaredfromsubway.eth’s bot saw what looked like MEV opportunities and generated approvals for attacker-controlled helper contracts to spend tokens on its behalf. Those approvals were used immediately as part of the trade in earlier tests, but later, the attacker created routes where the approvals stayed open.
This left the attacker with standing permission to pull funds. And they used those open approvals to transfer WETH, USDC and USDT out of Jaredfromsubway.eth’s contracts, draining more than $7.5 million.
Some of the stolen funds were later sent to Tornado Cash, onchain data reveiwed by CoinDesk showed.
The irony was hard to miss, meanwhile.
Jaredfromsubway.eth has long been one of the most visible symbols of toxic MEV on Ethereum. Sandwich attacks cost Ethereum traders about $60 million a year, with 60,000 to 90,000 attacks per month between November 2024 and October 2025.
Today in crypto, one of Ethereum’s most notorious MEV bots, Jaredfromsubway.eth, was exploited for more than $7.5 million in a sophisticated attack that was in the works for several weeks. Meanwhile, the Philippines’ securities regulator has signaled readiness to adopt real-world asset tokenization.
Notorious ‘sandwich attack’ bot Jaredfromsubway.eth exploited for $7.5M
One of the most successful MEV bots in crypto, Jaredfromsubway.eth, has been drained for more than $7.5 million, with an attacker exploiting the bot’s automated systems, the same ones that have netted it hundreds of millions over the years.
According to Blockaid, the incident on Saturday resulted from attacker-controlled contracts tricking Jaredfromsubway.eth’s automated MEV(maximal extractable value) execution system bot into granting token approvals that were later used to drain funds.
“This was a counter-MEV honeypot attack, as it specifically targeted the automated, trust-minimized decision-making logic that MEV bots utilize,” Blockaid chief technology officer Raz Niv told Cointelegraph.
It’s a rare setback for MEV bots like Jaredfromsubway.eth, which are automated programs that monitor unconfirmed transactions on blockchain networks and manipulate their order to extract profit, a kind of “invisible tax” on DeFi users.
Cointelegraph Research previously found that sandwich attacks on Ethereum have resulted in about $60 million in annual losses for traders. The research also found that between November 2024 and October 2025, there were 60,000 to 90,000 sandwich attacks per month, with roughly 70% of them associated with Jaredfromsubway.eth.
Philippine SEC signals readiness for RWA tokenization
Speaking onstage at the Philippine Blockchain Week 2026, SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo said the agency was “now fully convinced that we have the proper law [and] the proper regulatory mind and background” to accept asset tokenization. He said the technology could spur innovation in the capital markets and “revolutionize” stock exchanges.
In a follow-up interview with Cointelegraph, Quevedo said tokenized investment products could provide overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with more legitimate investment options.
“Our OFWs, they have the capital. They do not know where to place their money. They do not know how to make their money earn,” he said, pointing to investment scams that have targeted Filipinos seeking returns,” Quevedo said.
Philippine SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo (left) and Cointelegraph’s Ezra Reguerra (right) at the Philippine Blockchain Week 2026. Photo: Cointelegraph
“We are also using artificial intelligence to go after these unscrupulous scams,” he added, stressing that the SEC was working with Google, TikTok and other online platforms to remove illegal investment offerings.
The remarks framed regulated tokenization as both a capital-markets innovation and a potential investor-protection tool in the Philippines, where authorities have taken action against unregistered investment platforms.
One of the most successful MEV bots in crypto, Jaredfromsubway.eth, has been drained for more than $7.5 million, with an attacker exploiting the bot’s automated systems, the same ones that have netted it hundreds of millions over the years.
According to Blockaid, the incident on Saturday resulted from attacker-controlled contracts tricking Jaredfromsubway.eth’s automated MEV execution system into granting token approvals that were later used to drain funds.
“This is not a classic phishing attack and not a traditional smart-contract vulnerability in the victim contract,” Blockaid said on X.
It’s a rare comeuppance for MEV (maximal extractable value) bots like Jaredfromsubway.eth, which are automated programs that monitor unconfirmed transactions on blockchain networks and manipulate their order to extract profit, a kind of “invisible tax” on DeFi users.
Cointelegraph Research previously found that sandwich attacks on Ethereum have resulted in about $60 million in annual losses for traders. The research also found that between November 2024 and October 2025, there were 60,000 to 90,000 sandwich attacks per month, with roughly 70% of them associated with Jaredfromsubway.eth.
How Jaredfromsubway.eth was exploited
The attacker created fake wrapper tokens and pools, including fake Wrapped Ether (fWETH), fake USDC (fUSDC) and fake USDt (fUSDT) routes paired with fake Cap (fCAP), Blockaid explained.
The fakes were designed to look like profitable trades, the kind the MEV bot is programmed to chase. It then did what it was designed to do, approving certain attacker-controlled helper contracts to spend real money on its behalf.
While in normal cases, the bot would use up the approval during the trade, in this case, the attacker crafted routes that allowed the approvals to stay open.
Once enough approvals were in place, the attacker conducted a “final sweep” to pull WETH, USDC and USDT from the Jaredfromsubway.eth MEV bot contract via transferFrom.
“The attacker exploited the bot’s mechanism: its automated system detected what looked like profitable MEV opportunities and generated approvals to attacker-controlled helper contracts.”
“We shouldn’t be happy about this; no one should celebrate … but if you’ve ever been sandwiched by this … I’m pretty sure you’re not upset about this news,” crypto investor and commentator David Gokhshtein said.
Magazine: The end of anon? AI could unmask crypto’s hidden identities
A viral social media post is reviving an alleged Bitcoin prediction that appears to have called several major BTC price levels from 2019 through 2024, with one final target remaining: $145,000 by October 2026.
Key takeaways:
The new viral post appears to be an iteration of an older post with different Bitcoin price targets.
It also claims the author holds more than 90% of the Bitcoin supply, which is mathematically impossible.
The Bitcoin target still requires proof
The screenshot, shared by crypto account Corleone, shows an anonymous 4chan-style post dated Dec. 20, 2018.
It claims that a certain group holds “around 90% of total supply” and lists Bitcoin price targets for October 2019, February 2021, July 2021, November 2021, April 2022, November 2022, March 2024, July 2024, September 2024 and October 2026.
At first glance, the prediction looks unusually correct, with Corleone calling them “crazy accurate.” Bitcoin did trade at several of the listed historical levels, including around $67,000 in November 2021 and near $16,000 during the November 2022 bear-market low.
But there are several problems with treating the screenshot as authentic.
The original post is not publicly verifiable
The biggest issue is provenance. The screenshot does not show a verifiable archive link, tripcode, or any identity marker tying the prediction to a repeatable 4chan user.
That matters because 4chan posts are usually anonymous by design. “Anonymous” is not a single person or account. Without an archived source, there is no reliable way to prove that the same person predicted the events before they happened.
A Binance Square post from July 2024 uses the same “we hold around 90% of total supply” wording and many of the same targets, but lists Bitcoin at $105,400 in September 2024.
The newer viral screenshot instead shows September 2024 at $74,000 and adds the October 2026 target of $145,000.
Related: Bitcoin $150K price calls are ‘drying up,’ which is healthy
That difference is a major red flag. It suggests the image or prediction list may have been edited over time to better match Bitcoin’s historical price action.
The market cap claim does not add up
The screenshot also says the prediction would produce a $5.7 trillion market cap, with Bitcoin dominance at 40%–47%.
If the $5.7 trillion figure refers to Bitcoin alone, it is mathematically wrong. At $145,000 per BTC and roughly 20 million BTC in circulation, Bitcoin’s market capitalization would be about $2.9 trillion.
Even using Bitcoin’s full 21 million maximum supply, the market cap would be around $3.05 trillion.
If the post refers to the total crypto market, the wording is unclear and still does not prove anything about the prediction’s authenticity.
The “90% of BTC supply” claim lacks proof
The screenshot also claims: “We hold around 90% of total supply now.”
Bitcoin has about 20.04 million BTC in circulating supply and a 21 million BTC supply cap, so 90% would imply control of roughly 18 million BTC.
Also, the top 100 richest Bitcoin addresses control about 15.27% of the BTC supply, while the top 10,000 addresses hold about 53.89% of the same, according to data resource Bitinfocharts.
That is far below the 90% supply supposedly held by the viral post’s author.
For now, the claim that an anonymous 4chan user accurately predicted Bitcoin’s major price moves through 2026 should be treated as unproven. It appears more likely to be an edited or recycled crypto meme than proof of a trader who “does not miss.”
