U.S. Representative Maxine Waters may soon return to the helm of the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats perform as expected in the November elections, and she’s asking that the Department of Labor back away from a proposal that would encourage the managers of 401(k) retirement plans to offer alternative investments, including cryptocurrency.
In March, the Labor Department proposed a rule to implement what President Donald Trump had ordered: that people’s 401(k) accounts be open to investments in private equity, private credit, real estate, commodities and digital assets. Waters filed a detailed, 11-page comment letter with the department this week, requesting that the idea be withdrawn.
“It is incoherent for the department to bless digital assets as suitable for the retirement savings of everyday Americans while the [Securities and Exchange Commission] is still building the investor-protection regime intended to make those same assets safe for ordinary investors,” Waters argued in the letter. “The hazard is not confined to the volatility of individual tokens, severe as that is. It reflects a broader deterioration across the digital‑asset ecosystem, where trading activity, developer engagement, and user participation have collapsed.”
Bitcoin BTC$59,698.59 found some footing around $60,000 on Friday after this week’s selloff, but the biggest gains came from decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Solana ecosystem.
Leading the advance was the native token of Aave AAVE$94.60, the largest DeFi lending protocol, which jumped 19% over the past 24 hours. CoinDesk reported Thursday that crypto exchange Kraken is exploring a strategic investment tied to the lending protocol, acquiring a 15% stake at a $385 million valuation.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov pushed back in an X post against the suggestion that Aave assets could be sold at a steep discount. He reiterated that all protocol revenue — currently running at an annualized $134 million, he said. — flows to the Aave DAO and ultimately benefits AAVE token holders under the protocol’s recently adopted “Aave Will Win” framework.
Kulechov also teased “Aavenomics 3.0,” an upcoming overhaul for the token’s design that will introduce an automated buyback mechanism.
Solana activity boosted by tokenized stocks
Solana (SOL), the layer-1 blockchain known for its fast speed, and its ecosystem also outperformed, with SOL climbing nearly 10% on Friday.
Latest developments: Trent Van Epps says Ethereum’s long-term decentralization strategy is entering a critical transition phase.
Van Epps said he left the Ethereum Foundation after it became clear the organization would accelerate its “subtraction” philosophy of pushing authority and legitimacy into the broader ecosystem.
He described the Ethereum Foundation as intentionally reducing its central role rather than consolidating power, arguing that multiple independent institutions should eventually coordinate the ecosystem.
The comments come after recent Ethereum Foundation leadership changes and workforce reductions, which have fueled questions about Ethereum’s future governance.
Van Epps joined CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie on Markets Outlook.
What this means: Van Epps argues Ethereum faces a practical funding challenge rather than an existential crisis.
He estimated core protocol development requires roughly $30 million annually, even as the Ethereum Foundation’s treasury gradually declines over time.
According to Van Epps, the issue is not shrinking technical needs but identifying new organizations willing to finance public goods that keep the network reliable and secure.
He said his Protocol Guild initiative has distributed nearly $40 million to Ethereum core developers over roughly four years but is not sufficient on its own to replace broader ecosystem funding.
Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to reclaim $60,000 on Friday amid continued global market volatility.
Key points:
Bitcoin closes below $60,000 on daily time frames for the first time since September 2024.
Asian stock markets see another day of major losses on tech-stock concerns.
BTC price analysis hopes for a reclaim of the 200-week trend line as the bull case.
Bitcoin risks $60,000 resistance flip as tech selling persists
Data from TradingView showed that prior support was increasingly becoming the bulls’ new hurdle after Bitcoin’s first sub-$60,000 daily close since September 2024.
Surrounding the weakness, tech-stock performance remained a popular talking point. Earlier, Micron Technologies boosted the mood with stronger-than-expected earnings data.
Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter suggested that a broader bullish turnaround could already be due.
“Most people do not realize how many tech giants are already deep bear market territory,” it wrote in a post on X.
Kobeissi noted that many major tech companies were already down more than 50% versus their all-time highs, with crypto exchange Coinbase leading at -69%.
In its latest analysis, trading company QCP Capital stressed the influence of US inflation trends on risk assets going forward.
As Cointelegraph reported, the May print of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, known as the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation gauge, recorded its highest year-on-year increase since mid-2023.
“Core PCE is nowcast at 3.30%, while headline PCE is nowcast at 3.82%, both still above target,” QCP wrote.
“The Fed’s 2026 inflation forecast has also moved up to 3.6%, from 2.7%, reinforcing the view that inflation, rather than growth, remains the binding constraint.”
US PCE Index one-month % change (screenshot). Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
BTC price 200-week trend line reclaim in focus
Looking at the short term, crypto trader and analyst Michaël Van de Poppe asked whether BTC price action would continue its downward trend.
Related: BTC price four-year trend calls for $76K as analysis says Bitcoin ‘not broken’
“It’s an interesting day for Bitcoin,” he told X followers, noting the upcoming quarterly options expiry event.
Van de Poppe drew attention to the performance of Strategy, the company with the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury, and its Bitcoin funding vehicle, Stretch (STRC).
“In all honesty, the fact that STRC has seen a relatively big drop yesterday and Bitcoin essentially stalled at $60,000 is not a weak signal. Other than that, there’s a bullish divergence on the daily timeframe, which is still far from confirmed,” he continued.
“It can signal that we’re bouncing back upwards, and, yes, the markets need to bounce back upwards in order to close above the 200-Week MA.”
BTC/USD one-day chart with 200-week SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The trend line in question, the 200-week simple moving average (SMA), stood at $62,243 at the time of writing.
Latest developments: The Alliance to End Human Trafficking is urging lawmakers to revisit Section 604 of the Clarity Act, arguing the provision could make it harder to hold some crypto platform developers accountable when their technology is used to facilitate human trafficking.
Katie Boller Gosewisch, executive director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, said her organization’s primary concern is language stating that developers who do not control user funds are not money transmitters.
Boller Gosewisch argued the provision could allow some third-party platform developers to “hide behind” a lack of liability if their software is used to facilitate trafficking-related payments.
The Alliance and Catholic Charities recently sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlining their concerns with the legislation.
Boller Gosewisch joined Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti on CoinDesk’s The Policy Protocol.
The debate: Rettig argued Section 604 reflects longstanding U.S. anti-money laundering policy rather than creating a new legal shield.
Rettig said the provision simply clarifies that developers who do not control customer assets are not considered money transmitters, consistent with existing Bank Secrecy Act and FinCEN guidance.
She argued the bill preserves liability for parties that do control user funds and does not eliminate exposure under other criminal statutes.
She also pointed to existing money laundering laws, including 18 U.S.C. § 1956, as tools prosecutors can use against developers who knowingly facilitate criminal activity.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have opened a joint public consultation on whether to better align portfolio margin rules across securities and derivatives markets, seeking feedback on approaches that could expand cross-margining and reduce market fragmentation.
The agencies are requesting input on cross-margining, collateral treatment, risk management, customer protections and the potential effects on market liquidity and competition. The public comment period will remain open for 60 days after the request is published in the Federal Register.
“Cross-margining offers a clear opportunity to unlock liquidity that remains frozen in separate accounts,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said, adding that harmonizing the agencies’ frameworks could help prevent jurisdictional overlap from limiting innovation and market efficiency.
Cross-margining allows offsetting positions across different products or markets to be considered together when calculating margin requirements, rather than treating each position separately. By recognizing these offsets, companies can often post less collateral against hedged positions because margin is based on the portfolio’s overall risk rather than each position in isolation.
The SEC oversees securities and security-based swaps, while the CFTC regulates futures, swaps and commodity derivatives. As crypto exchanges and brokerages increasingly operate across both markets, the agencies’ joint review reflects the growing need for coordinated oversight.
Related: CFTC hires SEC crypto task force adviser with blockchain forensics chops
Crypto derivatives expand across regulated markets
The joint request for comment follows recent regulatory approvals that paved the way for a broader expansion of crypto derivatives offerings.
On May 29, the CFTC approved Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures for prediction market platform Kalshi and cleared Coinbase Financial Markets to offer eligible US institutional clients access to certain Deribit-listed crypto options and perpetual futures. Coinbase began offering that access the same day through its integration with Deribit.
A few weeks later, Kraken launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible US users through its recently acquired Bitnomial platform, expanding its domestic derivatives offerings beyond CME-listed crypto futures.
Source: Kraken Pro
The expansion of crypto derivatives in the US has also raised broader questions about whether existing regulatory frameworks remain appropriate across different markets.
Earlier this week, CFTC Chair Mike Selig said cryptocurrency perpetual futures were not a “natural fit” for traditional commodity markets such as agriculture, highlighting the challenges regulators face in applying existing frameworks across increasingly diverse asset classes.
Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves
Ondo Finance has enabled around-the-clock minting and redemption for tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Ethereum and BNB Chain, removing the weekday-only constraint that had tied position creation and cancellation to US market hours.
Ondo Finance has enabled around-the-clock minting and redemption for tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Ethereum and BNB Chain, removing the prior weekday-only constraint that had tied the creation and cancellation of positions to US market hours. The upgrade, announced by Ondo Finance on Wednesday, applies initially to six of the platform’s most actively traded instruments: SPYon, QQQon, CRCLon, NVDAon, TSLAon, and GOOGLon.
Additional tokenized stocks and ETFs will be added in coming weeks, with Solana support coming next. Ondo described the feature as a first for the sector, noting that rivals offering “24/7 trading” have confined continuous access to secondary-market transfers on centralized and decentralized exchanges, while issuance and redemption remained tied to market hours.
Why It Changes Things
Transfers of Ondo’s tokenized securities have always been available at any hour, letting holders move, lend, or use assets in DeFi protocols regardless of whether US markets are open. What was missing was the ability to create new positions or exit them directly on weekends and holidays. The new feature closes that gap, giving institutional and qualified investors a full lifecycle for tokenized equities on blockchain infrastructure that never closes.
Ondo Global Markets, which now lists more than 430 tokenized stocks and ETFs across Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain, became the first tokenized-stock platform to surpass $1 billion in total value locked, exceeding the combined TVL of competing platforms, the company said.
Broader RWA Context
The launch comes as the tokenized real-world asset sector has broadened rapidly. Earlier this month, Ondo added 173 stocks and ETFs to its catalog, pushing the platform past 430 assets on three chains. Rival approaches to continuous equity access have varied: Binance launched bStocks on BNB Chain in June, while Coinbase has outlined plans for 1:1-backed tokenized US stocks with on-chain dividends.
Ondo noted that AI agents on the Virtuals protocol can now access the 24/7 minting and redemption feature, extending programmable round-the-clock equity exposure to automated strategies. The Solana rollout of the feature is expected in the near future.
An Ethereum whale who shorted Ether (ETH) during the October 2025 crypto crash has returned after eight months of silence.
Key takeaways:
Ethereum whale opens a $19.72 million 20x ETH short near the $1,500 support zone.
ETH’s bear flag setup hints at a decline toward $1,375, which may earn the whale roughly $2.39 million in profits.
Ethereum whale opens 20x short after eight-month hiatus
On Friday, wallet ‘0xf83f…6728’ opened a 20x-leveraged ETH short worth $19.72 million as Ether reached the $1,500 support zone after dropping 18.25% over the last two weeks.
The position was opened at an average price of around $1,565, according to data resource Hyperbot. As of this press time, the whale had earned nearly $106,500 in unrealized profits as the ETH price dropped around the $1,550 area.
Ethereum whale’s $19.72M position status as of Friday. Source: Hyperbot
The downside sentiment in the Ethereum market has tracked a broader tech-led risk selloff, with traders cutting exposure to speculative assets as Nasdaq and chip stocks came under pressure.
Ethereum-specific sentiment has weakened further amid renewed scrutiny of the Ethereum Foundation, following reports of budget cuts, staff reductions and a wave of senior departures that have raised questions about the organization’s leadership stability.
Ether is eyeing a decline toward the $1,375 level if it continues the breakdown out of its prevailing bear flag pattern.
ETH/USD daily price chart tracking the bear flag breakdown setup. Source: TradingView
If ETH falls to $1,375, the whale’s unrealized profit would rise to roughly $2.39 million before fees and funding, based on the position’s approximate $1,565 entry price.
Same whale shorted ETH near October 2025 crash top
The wallet’s latest move stands out because of its trading history.
Transaction logs show that wallet ‘0xf83f…6728’ last became active on Oct. 27, 2025, when it opened an ETH short near $4,172 as volatility from the October crypto crash was easing.
Related: Are Ethereum OGs jumping ship? Here’s what the data says
The trader later closed the position near $4,133, booking $41,693 in net profit after $5,263 in exchange fees.
Ethereum whale’s filled ETH orders from October 2025. Source: Hyperbot
The whale’s current strategy appears similar: short ETH into weakness, use high leverage, and lean into downside momentum. The scale has changed sharply, however, since the current position carries nearly $20 million in notional exposure, making it far larger than the whale’s October 2025 trade.
ETH double bottom could threaten the whale’s short
The whale’s bearish bet is not without risk.
As of Friday, Ether’s daily chart showed a potential double bottom near the $1,500–$1,512 support area, where buyers stepped in twice in June. The setup remains unconfirmed, but a strong rebound from this zone could shift short-term momentum back toward the bulls.
The key level to watch is the neckline near $1,850. A decisive daily close above that level would confirm the double bottom pattern and open the door to a measured rebound toward roughly $2,190, based on the distance between the neckline and the $1,512 bottom.
That would put ETH close to the whale’s liquidation zone near $2,150, meaning a confirmed bullish reversal could pressure or even wipe out the short position if the trader does not add collateral or reduce exposure.
Michael Saylor responded to the deepening selloff in Strategy’s stock and preferred shares Friday with a statement on X.
“Volatility tests every capital structure,” Saylor wrote. “Strategy remains focused on Bitcoin, disciplined capital allocation, credit quality, and long-term value creation. We appreciate our investors and will continue to execute with transparency and resolve. $MSTR”.
The tweet landed as MSTR shares and STRC, Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred, both hit 52-week lows. MSTR has shed more than 80% from its all-time peak. STRC, which carries a par value of $100, traded near $74 — a 26% discount. When preferred shares trade below par, the mechanism that funds bitcoin purchases through preferred issuance breaks down: the company cannot raise capital on favorable terms on instruments trading at a discount.
Bitcoin broke to $58,000 Wednesday for the first time since October 2024, pushing Strategy’s paper losses above $14 billion. The company holds 847,363 bitcoin at an average purchase price of $75,680 per coin — a gap of more than $17,000 per coin at current prices.
MSTR shares, which had shed around 25% over five trading days going into Friday, extended that decline somewhat in pre-market trading as bitcoin’s slide appeared to stagnate. The stock trades at an mNAV below 1.0, meaning the market values Strategy’s shares at a discount to the bitcoin on its balance sheet.
That matters because the company’s model depends on a premium: Strategy issues stock or preferred instruments above NAV, deploys proceeds into bitcoin, and lifts NAV per share in the process. With the premium gone, both capital taps are constrained at the same time.
Strategy’s cash strain deepens further
The pressure on the capital structure extends past bitcoin’s price. Annual dividend obligations on Strategy’s preferred instruments — STRC, STRK, STRF, STRD, and STRE — have risen from $300 million at the start of 2026 to $1.2 billion, a fourfold increase in six months. Cash reserves have fallen 38% this year. Dividend coverage, once above seven years, has compressed to about 14 months.
A Bloomberg report Thursday described investor scrutiny of Saylor’s funding model as the most intense the company has faced. CryptoQuant issued a note this week calling on Strategy to halt bitcoin purchases and rebuild cash to $2.8 billion before resuming accumulation.
Strategy made its first bitcoin sale in four years in early June, offloading 32 BTC at an average of $77,135 per coin. Saylor framed the move as proof the company could cover dividend obligations through asset liquidation. The market’s reaction suggests that framing did not hold.
Last week, Strategy bought 520 bitcoin — a fraction of its prior pace — and put $300 million of a $335.5 million equity raise into cash rather than bitcoin. Saylor has not elaborated on the tweet beyond the statement posted to X.
