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Bitcoin, XRP draw Japanese firms as weak yen drives treasury diversification

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Bitcoin, XRP draw Japanese firms as weak yen drives treasury diversification

Japanese companies are turning to bitcoin and XRP as a weak yen pushes them to diversify their corporate treasuries, according to SBI VC Trade, as the crypto exchange’s registered accounts passed 2 million.

The crypto arm of financial group Tokyo-based SBI Holdings said use of its corporate service, SBIVC for Prime, has grown as the weak yen drives firms to spread reserves beyond cash, with added demand from companies that hand out bitcoin or XRP through shareholder-perk programs.

It reported the account milestone on Tuesday, roughly double the 1 million it counted in 2025.

The 2 million figure combines its VCTRADE and BITPOINT services and follows SBI VC Trade’s April 2026 merger with sister firm BitPoint Japan. The company plans to fully integrate the two brands around the end of December, which it said should cut costs and unify service levels.

Bitcoin pulls back from $64,500 as weak ETF flows, falling open interest cloud outlook

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Bitcoin pulls back from $64,500 as weak ETF flows, falling open interest cloud outlook

Bitcoin BTC$63,487.87 stalled on Tuesday, falling for the first time this month and breaking the longest stretch of gains since March. It had rallied to $64,500, its highest point in more than two weeks, on Monday.

Ether (ETH) tracked the larger cryptocurrency, dropping to $1,770 after hitting a high of $1,830 on Monday.

The July recovery can be attributed to a short-squeeze setup that was identified in late June, which saw heavy short interest despite bitcoin trading at its lowest point since 2024.

Bitcoin and other crypto tokens capitalized on a skew in short positions, recovering from oversold territory and advancing every day since the start of the month.

The total crypto market has grown by 8.4% since July 1, and is now worth $2.16 trillion.

U.S. equities fell in pre-market trading on Tuesday, with Nasdaq 100 index futures losing 0.9% since midnight UTC as the decline from June’s record high continues.

Derivatives positioning

  • Over $500 million in leveraged crypto futures bets have been liquidated by exchanges in 24 hours, with shorts, or bearish positions, accounting for most of the tally for a sixth straight day.
  • Despite the recent price strength, BTC’s futures open interest (OI) has slipped to 740K BTC, down from the July 3 high of 776K BTC. This shows that derivative traders are not participating in the price rise alongside a continued weakness in spot demand, as evidenced from ETF flows and the Coinbase premium. This raises questions about the sustainability of the gains.
  • The same is true for ether (ETH), which recently outperformed BTC.
  • OI in SOL has pulled back to 68 million tokens from the peak of over 76 million on June 24. The message is the same. The 10% rise in the token has so far failed to galvanize demand for leveraged plays.
  • Canton Network’s CC token has declined by over 4% in 24 hours accompanied by a 3% uptick in the futures OI to 245.59 million tokens. This, coupled with negative funding rates and 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta, points to a growing bearish bias.
  • Most tokens have a negative OI-adjusted CVD, a sign of bears being more aggressive by shorting at market orders rather than passive limit order plays. It suggests potential for losses ahead.
  • Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, has jumped to 40%, snapping a six-day losing streak. Still, the gauge remains well below January highs near 60% in a positive sign for crypto bulls. The same is true for ether’s index, EVIV.
  • On Deribit, options continue to showcase lingering downside concerns in both bitcoin and ether. Options volume in BTC paints a mixed picture with both calls and puts making it to the list of top traded bets in the past 24 hours.
  • On decentralized exchange Derive, a large long call condor strategy on HYPE crossed the tape, indicating expectations for a range play between $75 and $80 till July 24.

Token talk

  • The altcoin market continues to show internal contradictions. Tokens like FET, KASPA and WLD have all posted losses despite the broader marketwide recovery this week, while ETHFI and LIT have outperformed, adding more than 30% over the past seven days.
  • WLFI$0.06068 was one of the top-performing tokens on Tuesday, rising 4.8. It’s worth noting that the token, linked to the family of President Donald Trump, is down by more than 89% since it was created last August.
  • The decoupling of some altcoins demonstrates a maturing of the sector, with token performance based on underlying sentiment and onchain activity. Historically, the entire altcoin market moved in unison.
  • CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator is at 46/100, below Friday’s high and higher than in May, when it was consistently around 30/100.

Coinbase secures UK authorization to offer traditional investments alongside crypto

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Coinbase secures UK authorization to offer traditional investments alongside crypto

Nasdaq-listed Coinbase (COIN) has secured U.K. regulatory approval to offer equities and derivatives alongside crypto, expanding its product suite in one of its largest international markets.

The new license enables institutional and advanced traders to access crypto, equity and commodity perpetual futures, Coinbase said in a blog post. Retail customers in the U.K. will also be able to trade equities on Coinbase for the first time.

The authorization sits alongside Coinbase’s U.K. e-money license and crypto registration. The company received FCA cryptoasset registration in February last year, allowing it to provide crypto and fiat services in the country.

U.K. users are getting access to products Coinbase has started rolling out overseas. U.S. users already have access to stock and exchange-traded fund trading, while eligible non-U.S. customers can trade USDC-settled stock perpetual futures on large-cap names including Apple, Microsoft and Tesla.

Coinbase has also said it plans to offer tokenized stocks backed one-for-one by U.S. equities to eligible non-U.S. users. Those products are meant to give investors ownership of the underlying shares, including dividends.

BTC price July rise at risk as Coinbase Premium logs 50-day negative streak: Crypto Daily

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BTC price July rise at risk as Coinbase Premium logs 50-day negative streak: Crypto Daily

Bitcoin BTC$63,069.47 fell on Tuesday after chalking out a six-day winning streak, the longest since March. The gains, in any case, looked fragile when viewed through the lens of several indicators.

The most widely followed is the Coinbase Premium, which tracks the difference between bitcoin’s price on U.S.-based exchange Coinbase (COIN) and Binance. It has now been negative for fifty straight days, according to data source Coinglass.

That means for close to two months, BTC has been cheaper on Coinbase than Binance, which doesn’t operate in the U.S. The discrepancy is an indicator of relatively weak demand in the world’s largest economy, a message underscored by the eight straight weeks of net outflows from U.S. spot exchange-traded funds. Historically, bull runs have featured consistently positive Coinbase Premiums.

Another concerning trend is seen in Japan, where bond yields just can’t stop rising. The 10-year rose to a 30-year high early today, lifting borrowing costs in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. A continued upswing, particularly in Treasury yields, could create a headwind for BTC.

While seasonality supports continued recovery, it’s the ETF flows that matter the most, according to analysts.

Why rally in Ripple-linked token stalled near $1.15

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Why rally in Ripple-linked token stalled near $1.15

• Volume ran 16.19% above the seven-day average, enough to show participation but not enough to confirm a clean breakout.

• The sharpest activity came near the session low around $1.1110, when volume reached 106.5 million XRP, about 129% above the 24-hour average.

• Buyers later pushed XRP toward $1.1507, but the move failed to hold near the upper end of the range.

Technical Analysis

• The key development is that XRP defended the $1.11 area, but failed to turn the rebound into a sustained move above $1.13-$1.14.

• The earlier breakout above $1.08 remains intact, but the next leg higher needs stronger volume through resistance.

• The rejection near $1.1507 shows sellers are still active around the same zone that capped recent recovery attempts.

• The hourly structure weakened after XRP failed near $1.1308 and slipped back toward $1.1249, leaving a lower-high pattern intraday.

• XRP remains in a consolidation phase between support near $1.11 and resistance near $1.14-$1.15.

What traders should watch

• $1.1110 is the key downside level after buyers defended it during the session.

• $1.1249-$1.1270 is the immediate support zone after the latest intraday pullback.

• $1.1308-$1.1325 is the first resistance area bulls need to reclaim.

• $1.14-$1.15 remains the bigger test after repeated failures near that zone.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent macro relief faces a challenge from Japanese interest rates

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent macro relief faces a challenge from Japanese interest rates

Japanese bonds are challenging the boost bitcoin BTC$63,372.39 has received from shifting interest-rate expectations that lifted the price of the largest cryptocurrency by 8% in fewer than seven days.

The 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield has surged to a 30-year high of 2.85%, adding 18 basis points since the start of the month and raising borrowing costs across other major developed markets.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield has gained nearly three basis points and is testing 4.5% for the first time in nearly a month. The German 10-year bund is approaching 3% and the U.K. 10-year gilt is yielding around 4.8%. Real yields, which are adjusted for inflation, are also climbing.

For years, Japan kept global yields suppressed through near-zero interest rates and aggressive quantitative easing. That policy fueled carry trades that involved borrowing yen at a low rate and investing in high-yielding bonds elsewhere. Thus, Japan indirectly capped borrowing costs in advanced nations.

This matters for bitcoin because higher government bond yields increase the opportunity cost of holding an asset that generates no cash. Capital parked in BTC is capital not earning the stronger, more reliable returns available in fixed income.

Bitcoin holders can now participate in a BTC covered call income strategy on Binance

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Bitcoin holders can now participate in a BTC covered call income strategy on Binance

Binance has introduced a product for bitcoin BTC$63,103.48 holders looking to earn extra yield on their investment without selling any of it, joining the likes of BlackRock in helping them maximize returns.

The product, BTC Yield, is available inside Binance Earn and is designed exclusively for people who already hold bitcoin.

Users deposit their bitcoin into the product and receive an internal position called BTCY, which tracks their share in the strategy. Everything remains denominated in BTC, and the product cannot be funded with stablecoins or other assets.

Binance holds the deposited bitcoin as collateral while systematically selling BTC call options, that is, it writes insurance against price rallies in BTC. The call seller, or writer, gets compensated with a premium. Binance collects those premiums and shares most of them with participants.

This covered-call approach, common in crypto and traditional finance, has typically required deep options knowledge to execute. Binance’s version makes it accessible to regular traders by handling everything behind the scenes.

Two types of return

The product generates potential returns in two ways.

First, a portion of the collected premiums is converted to bitcoin and distributed to users’ spot accounts every Friday as a possible weekly payout.

BonkDAO Treasury Drained of $20M via Malicious Proposal

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BonkDAO Treasury Drained of $20M via Malicious Proposal

BonkDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization tied to the Solana-based memecoin BONK, said Monday it was the target of a malicious governance proposal that drained an estimated $20 million worth of BONK tokens from its treasury, according to a post on its official X account. The DAO said the…

BonkDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization tied to the Solana-based memecoin BONK, said Monday it was the target of a malicious governance proposal that drained an estimated $20 million worth of BONK tokens from its treasury, according to a post on its official X account.

The DAO said the attack routed through a governance vote rather than a smart-contract bug, a vector that has hit other protocols this year, including a June governance takeover at Balancer-linked TOP token pools that drained $1.58 million.

BonkDAO said it has already identified the exchange wallets used to buy BONK ahead of the proposal being submitted, a pattern suggesting the attacker positioned tokens before pushing the malicious vote through. The DAO is “actively working with exchanges, bridges and Solana Foundation to best manage the situation,” per its statement.

Law Enforcement Notified

BonkDAO said law enforcement has been notified and that it continues working with “relevant parties to recover funds and identify those responsible,” according to the same post. The DAO did not name a suspect or disclose the specific governance mechanism exploited to pass the proposal.

The disclosure came directly from BonkDAO’s verified X account, with no on-chain transaction hash, security-firm tracing report, or third-party confirmation yet available. BONK is among the largest Solana memecoins by market capitalization, and a governance-level treasury drain of this size marks one of the larger DAO exploits reported this year via the proposal-attack vector rather than a code vulnerability.

RGB And UTEXO Enable Private Lightning Settlements

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RGB And UTEXO Enable Private Lightning Settlements

Tether, the company behind USDT, is preparing to issue the stablecoin natively on Bitcoin through the RGB protocol version v0.11.1. Deployed by the UTEXO software lab, USDT is set to return to the chain where it first launched in 2014 via the Omni-Mastercoin Layer. 

UTEXO, the company leading the commercial rollout, has positioned itself as the issuer and distributor of this Bitcoin-native USDT in partnership with Tether.  “Finally, after eight years of development—if not more—we are the company that is launching USDT over Bitcoin with strong support from Tether,” said Viktor Ihnatiuk, UTEXO co-founder, in an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine. 

The RGB protocol combines its novel client-side validation with the Lightning network for instant, private settlements, while anchoring security to Bitcoin’s UTXO model. Users can expect to be able to handle USDT on native Bitcoin addresses as well as send and receive it over the Lightning network with compatible wallets. 

The RGB protocol on Bitcoin also offers significant privacy features to USDT users as the asset benefits from Bitcoin’s UTXO model, which standardizes fresh addresses for every transaction compared to the account-based address reused commonly in EVM blockchains like Tron, Ethereum or Solana. Address reuse is the first mistake of onchain privacy, yet most altcoins built their interfaces to reuse addresses, despite the risk it poses to users. RGB’s integration with the Lightning network further protects user privacy by moving USDT via the offchain payments network, which leaves few marks on the public blockchain. The deep integration with Tether also means that there are fewer middleman companies charging extra fees or collecting data. 

On the topic, Vktor emphasized that, “We built Utexo so that USDT could move on Bitcoin the way money is supposed to move: instantly, privately, with no surprises on costs. Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT on the most resilient open network ever built, with full control over cost structure.”

UTEXO vs TRON

UTEXO emerged from a joint venture involving Viktor’s Boosty Venture Studio, Fulgur Ventures, and Tether Investments. The goal was straightforward: bring RGB to mainnet after years of delays under prior development teams. The protocol had been in active development since at least 2016, but failed to be ready for the 2017 bull market, giving the TRON blockchain dominance over USDT volume and usage throughout the developing world, a dominance which it still retains. 

UTEXO of specifically building “the last mile” of software needed for wide USDT deployment across the Bitcoin ecosystem, which includes a software development kit, APIs, mid-level protocols, UI design work and even a mint bridge that is live today at mint.utexo.com. This bridge lets users move USDT across popular blockchains with “deterministic low fees” and no middlemen thanks to its direct integration with Tether as the primary mint. The RGB protocol layer was developed by Bitfinex R&D Strategist Federico Tenga.

“Right now if you want to swap USDT to Bitcoin you need to pay high fees for all these wallets who charge you a one percent wallet fee plus a swap provider charge of one percent plus, and you have slippage one percent as well, so you pay three percent, and also you wait forever until the swap happens” Viktor told Bitcoin Magazine, adding that; “with USDT and Bitcoin over Lightning, for the first time you have two main assets on one chain, you can swap instantly without any slippage. You can swap decentralized USDT to Bitcoin and back on-chain. The price is almost the same as spot markets in Binance.”

Networks like Tron that are primarily used to move USDT also add extra fees, swap commissions and friction to the user experience. They require a different address type, with fees paid in an asset like TRX, which is only ever used to move the stablecoin. With most of the monetary volume in the crypto market concentrated in Bitcoin and Tether, having to buy an altcoin just to pay fees ends up feeling like red tape. 

Bitcoin, as the payment rails of USDT, also comes with blockchain levels of security that other chains simply can not offer. While USDT will always be fundamentally centralized in Tether as a corporation, the rails can also add risk, for example, if a contentious fork occurs or major bugs are found on novel blockchain systems. Bitcoin, being the oldest and most conservative blockchain, delivers a quality assurance of sorts that can not be matched by other chains. 

RGB traces its roots to Peter Todd’s single-use seals back in 2014 and was formalized in 2016 by Giacomo Zucco and Riccardo Casatta. The RGB acronym, originally derived from “Riccardo Giacomo Bitcoin,” was later rebranded “Really Good Bitcoin”. Tether explored the protocol early but faced delays with the previous team. Had RGB shipped on schedule around 2019, the stablecoin landscape and broader DeFi industry might have developed differently around Bitcoin’s UTXO model instead of Ethereum’s account-based system.

As such, bringing USDT back to Bitcoin is a core motivation for UTEXO. Viktor minced no words on the matter: “For the first time in eight years or nine years, USDT is coming back home. We have no chance to fail. If we fail, no one will think about Bitcoin as a settlement layer anymore.”

USDT on Bitcoin via RGB is expected to be launched within weeks, possibly this July, with wallets like Tether Wallet among others announcing support, and exchanges across the world announcing integrations. 

EMURGO Says Hacked Cardano Wallet SecondFi Won’t Reopen

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EMURGO Says Hacked Cardano Wallet SecondFi Won’t Reopen

EMURGO, the Cardano-founding entity behind SecondFi, said Monday the hacked wallet service will not resume normal operations even after ongoing security audits conclude, telling all users to migrate away using its official recovery process. “Although we believe unaffected users remain safe,…

EMURGO, the Cardano-founding entity behind SecondFi, said Monday the hacked wallet service will not resume normal operations even after ongoing security audits conclude, telling all users to migrate away using its official recovery process.

“Although we believe unaffected users remain safe, SecondFi will not resume normal operations, even after the audits are complete,” EMURGO said in a post on its official X account. Going forward, EMURGO said, its role in SecondFi is limited to “a dedicated asset recovery team, tasked solely with returning assets to affected users.”

The Underlying Breach

SecondFi, a rebrand of the Yoroi wallet, is what EMURGO has called “Cardano’s largest wallet provider.” The service was hit by four distinct wallet-draining events discovered June 22, compromising 374 addresses and roughly 16 million ADA, worth about $2.4 million at the time, according to EMURGO’s own June 25 incident report. The team said it separately secured about 129 million ADA through emergency containment.

EMURGO has said compromised wallets should be treated as permanently exposed at the address and private-key level, meaning restoring an affected seed phrase into another wallet will not fix the risk.

Recovery Plan

EMURGO said it has engaged multiple independent firms to review the incident and code, and has submitted a patch closing the identified vulnerability, though investigations continue. It plans to launch a quarantined wallet-status checker this week, pending app-store approval, followed by a secure export tool for migrating funds to a hardware wallet or alternative platform, and an in-person migration workshop in Tokyo.

A dedicated restoration fund is being built into an on-chain recovery system that EMURGO said still requires an external audit before affected users’ assets can be returned. EMURGO said it will publish a full account of who was responsible and why once incident reports and code reviews are finalized.

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