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Luxembourg upgrades Ripple’s preliminary crypto asset provider to fully compliant

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Luxembourg upgrades Ripple’s preliminary crypto asset provider to fully compliant

Ripple said Monday that Luxembourg upgraded its preliminary Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization under the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations to a full license. The approval clears Ripple to provide cryptoasset services throughout the European Economic Area (EEA).

“This CASP authorisation means Ripple enters the post-transitional MiCA era fully compliant and ready to scale,” said Cassie Craddock, the company’s managing director for Europe and the U.K., in a statement.

The CASP license Ripple announced Monday makes the company one of a small number of digital asset firms to have full authorization under MiCA, which became law three years ago and came into full force on July 1. Crypto firms without a license must stop operating in the region. Ripple was granted a preliminary license in June.

Crypto exchange Binance is among thousands of other CASPs that failed to qualify in time. According to the rules, a firm licensed in an EU country can “passport” its services across the entire area.

In February, Rippled secured full approval as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), a step that lets the company scale regulated payment services across the European Union.

Bitcoin’s Sharpe Ratio slides to lowest since 2022.

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Bitcoin’s Sharpe Ratio slides to lowest since 2022.

Professional investors don’t just look at a coin’s price relative to its long-term average to assess whether it’s cheap. They use metrics such as the Sharpe Ratio to determine position sizing.

Imagine two coins: A and B. Coin A has fallen 30% from its recent high, but in a fairly steady way. Coin B has also fallen 30%, but its price is all over the place, jumping up and down by big percentages every day. Looking only at the drop from the high, both coins look equally “cheap.”

A professional investor would look beyond the price drop and consider the risk-adjusted return.

In this case, A’s smoother price path might give it a Sharpe Ratio of, say, 1.5, while Coin B’s wild swings leave it with a Sharpe Ratio of just 0.5. So even though both have the same 30% drop, Coin A clearly outperforms per unit of risk, making it the more attractive choice for sizing a position.

Historical context

While a -20 Sharpe Ratio reflects a year of poor volatility-adjusted performance, it also lights up a rare bottoming signal for the token’s price.

Historically, every time the yearly risk-adjusted return has reached this level of “unattractiveness,” it has marked the point of maximum seller exhaustion.

Bitcoin gets bullish signals from inflation breakevens

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Bitcoin gets bullish signals from inflation breakevens

“That’s when the deflationary impulse from falling oil prices should remind everyone that the Fed isn’t going to hike and that – if anything – the next move will be a cut,” Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, said in a report.

If the currency’s strength is under question, then the barrier to bitcoin rising further also looks weaker. The two are known to be inversely correlated.

Some observers, however, are calling for caution, saying the market is overestimating the impact of oil prices on inflation. Elevated price pressures, they say, are now a structural issue.

“The Fed can’t declare victory simply because gasoline prices move lower. Sticky service-sector inflation is exactly why policymakers are likely to keep rates higher for longer, even if headline CPI continues moderating,” YCC Macro said on X.

Markets betting on aggressive easing may be underestimating how persistent underlying inflation really is,” YCC Macro added. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

Bitcoin’s U.S. reserve still a work-in-progress as federal agencies hash it out

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Bitcoin’s U.S. reserve still a work-in-progress as federal agencies hash it out

The White House’s chief crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, and his predecessor in that role had both said that they’ll need Congress to fully back up the formation and activation of the crypto funds. Presidential orders don’t carry the weight of law, and no legislation has yet advanced, though such efforts have simmered among lawmakers in both the Senate and House of Representatives, And if Republicans lose the majority in the House or both chambers in this year’s midterm elections, it’s unlikely such a bill will formalize Trump’s concept anytime soon.

Read More: Those who cheered U.S. Bitcoin reserve have spent year watching Trump’s order languish

Even if the administration works out the structure for the funds, it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to pull the lever to officially put its bitcoin holding — estimated at more than 300,000, or about $21 billion — into that virtual vault.

The government’s bitcoin holdings would be a long-term investment. Trump and his administration has called it a strategic reserve, though it doesn’t fit the usual definition of that phrase, because it’s meant to be held for a long period and not doled out during market emergencies.

When Trump issued the order, he asked his administration to come up with ways to acquire more bitcoin without using taxpayer money. Several ideas have since been floated, though if they’d started buying the asset when Trump called for it, they’d have bought at $93,000, and BTC has dropped by about a third since then to today’s price just above $64,000.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy dramatically ups pace of bitcoin sales, raising $216 million

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy dramatically ups pace of bitcoin sales, raising $216 million

Strategy (MSTR) sold 3,588 bitcoin for approximately $216 million last week, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 BTC, according to a Monday SEC filing.

The company said proceeds from the bitcoin sales will be used to fund distributions on its preferred stock and replenish the portion of its U.S. dollar reserve used for those payments. As of July 5, the USD reserve totaled $2.55 billion.

The latest sales were executed at an average price of roughly $60,000 per bitcoin and are dramatically higher than the 32 bitcoin sold by the company about one month ago, which sent crypto prices plunging. Strategy currently holds 843,775 BTC acquired for approximately $63.69 billion, or an average purchase price of $75,476 per bitcoin.

Strategy also said it did not sell any shares under its at-the-market equity program during the week ended July, and did not repurchase any shares under its buyback programs. The company added that the full $1.25 billion capacity under its recently announced BTC Monetization Program remains available.

Strategy shares are down 2% in pre-market trading and bitcoin has given up much of its weekend gain, trading down to $61,900 from $62,900 prior to the announcement.

Bitmine (BMNR) buys 42k ETH while Strategy sells bitcoin (BTC)

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Bitmine (BMNR) buys 42k ETH while Strategy sells bitcoin (BTC)

Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), the largest Ethereum (ETH) treasury company, stepped up its buying pace last week, purchasing 42,197 ether (ETH) as chairman Thomas Lee pointed to improving prospects for U.S. crypto legislation as a catalyst for the asset.

The latest purchase, worth roughly $74 million based on ether’s current price of around $1,750, lifted the company’s holdings to 5.74 million ETH, according to a Monday update. The stash is now worth about $10 billion and represents 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, inching closer to the firm’s goal of cornering 5% of the asset’s supply.

The company also held 206 bitcoin, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, plus stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings, bringing its total crypto, cash and investment holdings to $11.1 billion.

The acquisition marks an increase from the prior week’s purchase of 27,084 ETH, though it remains below the six-figure weekly buying pace BitMine maintained earlier this year.

Bitmine buys as Strategy sells

Bitmine’s continued buying contrasts with a shift at Strategy (MSTR), the largest digital asset treasury and corporate bitcoin holder, which sold about $216 million worth of BTC to raise cash. The sale marked a rare reduction in Strategy’s bitcoin holdings and underscored the funding pressures the company faces amid the crypto market downturn and increased dividend obligations.

AVAX One CEO Jolie Kahn Resigns Days After Stock Crash Warning

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AVAX One CEO Jolie Kahn Resigns Days After Stock Crash Warning

AVAX One Technology, the Nasdaq-listed Avalanche treasury and bitcoin-mining company, said Chief Executive Jolie Kahn resigned effective July 3, with Chief Operating Officer Pete Wylie stepping in as interim CEO, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AVAX One Technology, the Nasdaq-listed digital infrastructure company that mines bitcoin and holds a strategic Avalanche treasury, said Chief Executive Jolie Kahn resigned effective July 3, with Chief Operating Officer Pete Wylie stepping in as interim CEO, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company, which trades as AVX, said the departure came “by mutual agreement” and that there was no disagreement over the company’s operations, policies or practices, per the filing. The board has retained ZRG Partners, a global executive search firm, to find a permanent successor.

Separation Terms

Kahn will receive a $160,000 lump-sum cash payment in lieu of remaining consulting fees, reimbursement for certain medical insurance costs, and a grant of unregistered common stock with a fair market value of $250,000, under a Separation and Release Agreement dated July 5, according to the 8-K filing. The agreement terminates Kahn’s consulting agreement with the company, dated November 1, 2025, and keeps her bound to non-competition, non-solicitation and non-disparagement terms.

Wylie will receive total compensation of $40,000 a month in the expanded role while continuing as COO, the filing shows.

Leadership Transition

Board chairman Matt Zhang said in the announcement that Kahn “played an instrumental role in positioning AVAX One for long-term success as we transformed into a digital infrastructure company,” and that the board has “full confidence in Pete’s ability to lead the Company through this transition.”

Wylie previously served as CFO of Napster Holdings through its 2025 acquisition by Infinite Reality and as CFO/COO of consumer lender CommonBond, according to the press release. He also co-founded fintech company Gradible, which CommonBond acquired in 2016.

“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead AVAX One through this transition,” Wylie said in the release, adding that he is “committed to keeping the team focused on execution and delivering long-term shareholder value” while the board runs its search.

Nasdaq Compliance Backdrop

The leadership change comes as AVAX One works to clear a Nasdaq listing deficiency. The company received a notice for falling below Nasdaq’s $1.00 minimum closing bid price requirement and faced a compliance deadline of July 6 — the same day its CEO transition became public — to show 10 consecutive trading days back above that threshold. Shareholders approved a 1-for-12 reverse stock split on May 29, which took effect June 15 and cut AVAX One’s share count from roughly 92.3 million to about 7.7 million, according to a company press release.

AVAX One describes itself as a digital infrastructure company building modular data centers for AI and high-performance computing, while also mining bitcoin in Alberta and Ohio at roughly 300 PH/s of hashrate and holding a strategic AVAX treasury that earns staking yield, according to the press release.

Avalanche Treasury Corp (AVAT), a separate Nasdaq-listed AVAX treasury vehicle that The Defiant reported in July disclosed a going-concern warning to the SEC after its stock crashed 93% in a month.

Cantor sees STRC recovery as key to Strategy’s capital engine

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Cantor sees STRC recovery as key to Strategy’s capital engine

Cantor said Strategy’s (MSTR) top priority is restoring its STRC preferred stock to par, arguing that doing so is key to restarting the company’s bitcoin BTC$63,785.78 acquisition engine and strengthening its capital structure.

After meeting with Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the Wall Street investment bank said it came away more confident in management’s plan to stabilize the balance sheet and revive capital raising.

In early Monday trading, STRC changed hands at $87.79, bitcoin was near $61,800, and MSTR was down 3.4% at $97.34. Just minutes ago, Strategy announced the sale of $216 million of bitcoin, with the cash to be used to fund STRC dividends.

Rather than viewing preferred holders, common shareholders and bitcoin investors as competing interests, the bank argued STRC is the foundation of Strategy’s funding model.

“This makes it a good time to either buy STRC—capturing both the spread to par as well as the instrument’s substantial yield—or to buy shares of MSTR common—which should rally as the overall capital structure moves to firmer footing,” analysts led by Ramsey El-Assal said in the Monday note to clients.

DeFi protocol Summer.fi halts Lazy Summer vaults after $6 million exploit

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DeFi protocol Summer.fi halts Lazy Summer vaults after $6 million exploit

Decentralized finance protocol Summer.fi has paused its Lazy Summer vaults after an exploit that drained about $6 million from the Ethereum-based yield platform, according to the project and several blockchain security firms.

Lazy Summer is an automated yield platform that routes deposits across lending markets such as Aave and Morpho in search of higher returns while handling rebalancing on behalf of users.

The incident was first flagged by blockchain security firm Blockaid, with PeckShield and CertiK also reporting suspicious activity. Summer.fi later confirmed it was investigating the attack and said protocol guardians had paused affected vaults to prevent additional losses.

Early analyses suggest the attacker leveraged a large flash loan attack, reportedly sourced through Morpho, to manipulate the accounting logic of Lazy Summer’s automated USDC vaults.

DeFi security researcher Bhari noted that the exploit took advantage of a flaw in the code to inflate total assets, which they were then allowed to redeem for a net profit. The stolen funds were apparently converted to DAI on Curve before being transferred to the attacker’s wallet.

The protocol had $22 million in total value locked before the exploit, according to DeFiLlama data. The protocol’s SUMR token lost more than 18% of its value after the exploit was uncovered.

Summer Finance Drained of $6M in Flash Loan Exploit

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Summer Finance Drained of $6M in Flash Loan Exploit

DeFi vault platform Summer Finance was drained of roughly $6 million on Monday in an exploit that security firm Blockaid said its detection system flagged as it was unfolding. Blockaid posted the exploit transaction, the attacker’s address and the affected Lazy Summer contracts within minutes of…

DeFi vault platform Summer Finance was drained of roughly $6 million on Monday in an exploit that security firm Blockaid said its detection system flagged as it was unfolding. Blockaid posted the exploit transaction, the attacker’s address and the affected Lazy Summer contracts within minutes of its initial alert, and PeckShield separately confirmed the $6 million loss in DAI.

“We are aware of the reported exploit a little earlier today and are investigating the root cause,” Summer Finance said in an X post at 4:42 a.m. Easter Time, its latest update at press time. “The protocol guardians are currently pausing all Vaults across the Lazy Summer Protocol.”

Summer Finance, known as SummerFi, is a DeFi yield-aggregation and automated vault-management platform with about $25 million of Total Value Locked, according to DeFiLlama. Blockchain analytics firm Onchain Lens, relayed by WuBlockchain, said the attacker took out a 64.8 million USDC flash loan to exploit the protocol by abusing parent vault Fleet Commander’s trust in its underlying Ark strategy contract.

The maneuver artificially inflated the Ark’s reported assets to about $7.14 million, letting the attacker redeem roughly 71 million USDC before repaying the flash loan and pocketing the difference. Security firm CertiK put the flash loan size at $65.4 million and estimated the attacker’s profit at about $6 million, a figure consistent with Blockaid’s and PeckShield’s tallies.

Independent researcher analysis found the exploit relied on legitimate protocol functions, including deposit, redeem and withdrawFromArks calls, rather than compromised keys or admin access. The researcher described the root cause as an accounting vulnerability exploitable within a single transaction.

The attack targeted how Summer Finance’s Fleet Commander vault architecture priced assets held in its Ark strategy modules, allowing a single flash-loaned transaction to inflate reported holdings and extract funds before repayment. Summer Finance had not issued its own public statement on the incident as of publication.

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