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AI trade loses steam as Samsung earnings fail to lift chip stocks amid open source AI shift

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AI trade loses steam as Samsung earnings fail to lift chip stocks amid open source AI shift

The AI trade, which incorporates semiconductors and memory stocks, is showing signs of fatigue as investors reassess whether the extraordinary spending boom on chips and data centers can be sustained.

Semiconductor and memory stocks such as Micron Technology (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) came under heavy pressure on Tuesday, after Samsung Electronics (005930) reported record second-quarter earnings but missed revenue estimates.

Shares still fell nearly 7%, extending a broader selloff across AI-linked chipmakers. Concerns are growing that hyperscalers could slow AI infrastructure spending.

Meanwhile, rival SK Hynix is down 25% from its all-time high ahead of its U.S. listing this week, a deal that is also drawing investor capital away from existing chip stocks.
The weakness comes after a spectacular rally in AI infrastructure stocks this year, with Sandisk up more than 525%, Micron gaining over 120%, and SK Hynix climbing roughly 225% in 2026.

Adding to the changing narrative, China’s Zhipu AI, one of the country’s leading artificial intelligence startups, is exploring a custom AI chip as demand for its open-source GLM models surges, highlighting the rise of lower-cost AI ecosystems built around domestic hardware rather than cutting-edge US chips.

The shift comes just weeks after SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO and amid elevated valuations across AI-related stocks. Investors are increasingly questioning whether the next phase of AI will require ever more GPUs and high-bandwidth memory, or whether more efficient models will reduce demand for the infrastructure that has powered the AI rally.

Over the past year, bitcoin and the broader crypto market have suffered from the AI trade, and if investor enthusiasm for AI continues to fade, crypto bulls could see capital rotate back into digital assets.

Bitcoin Bulls Buy The Dip And Use Leverage To Keep BTC Price Pumping

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Bitcoin Bulls Buy The Dip And Use Leverage To Keep BTC Price Pumping

Bitcoin (BTC) fell from nearly $64,000 on Sunday to about $62,000 on Monday, and the primary trigger behind the move appeared to be a SEC disclosure showing Strategy’s largest ever sale of 3,588 BTC. The fuller explanation for the price action can be found deeper in the plumbing.

Sunday’s climb toward $64,000 was almost entirely futures driven. Net futures buying reached roughly $415 million for the day, capped by a single four-hour burst of about $687 million that force-closed some $33 million in bets against Bitcoin. Spot flows over the same session were slightly negative, and this gap matters since a rally with no cash buyers behind it rests on positions that can be forced to unwind at any moment.

Monday morning delivered the unwind, and it accelerated as Strategy’s filing landed. The largest corporate Bitcoin treasury holder sold BTC for $216 million to fund dividend payments, with a further $1.25 billion of sale capacity still untouched. 

Related: Bitcoin recovers from Strategy’s BTC sale, funding rates hit 9%: Are bulls back?

Following the news, Bitcoin futures flows swung to roughly $456 million of net selling in a single four-hour window. Liquidations hit both directions at once, roughly $42 million of bullish positions and $49 million of bearish ones. The Monday afternoon recovery looked different from Sunday’s rally as futures buying of about $568 million was joined, for the first time in days, by meaningful spot buying of about $143 million.

BTC/USD cumulative volume delta. Source: Hyblock

Through the price whipsaws, Bitcoin’s funding rate held firm in positive territory for over a week, including during Monday’s slide. With about $20.6 billion in open futures positions, the market’s leveraged optimism remains largely intact, but due to the funding rate and number of longs crowded into leveraged positions, the current setup is fragile.

BTC/USD open interest. Source: Hyblock

Two areas to keep an eye on are whether Strategy’s sale marks the beginning of a prolonged selling phase for the company and whether the unused $1.25 billion authorization will weigh on any rally. 

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its June meeting, with markets currently pricing in a 75.6% chance that rates will remain at 3.50%-3.75% in July. Any hawkish tone in the minutes may test crowded leveraged long positions, with pressure zones at $62,300 to $62,800 above the market and $61,000 and $59,500 below.

SEC Crypto Rule Changes Are High on its 2026 Agenda

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SEC Crypto Rule Changes Are High on its 2026 Agenda

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced proposed rule changes that its chair said would “help clarify the regulatory framework for crypto assets and provide greater certainty to the market” as part of its annual agenda.

In a Tuesday notice, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that the agency’s 2026 agenda was intended to align with the Trump administration’s policy goals on crypto, which included clarification on tokenized securities and capital raising with digital assets. The agenda included three proposed rule changes addressing crypto broker-dealers, digital assets on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges, and potential exemptions and safe harbors for digital assets.

“The proposed rules may provide greater certainty to the market, facilitate capital formation, and accommodate innovation within the crypto asset markets while, at the same time, ensuring that investors are adequately protected and provided with the information they need to make informed investment decisions,” said the SEC on one of the proposed rules “relating to the offer and sale of crypto assets.”

The proposed rules came as the US Congress is debating provisions in a crypto market structure bill expected to shift much of the oversight and enforcement of the industry from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In March, Atkins said that the SEC would move forward with an agency “bridge” to clarify crypto regulation, but signaled that he would defer to legislation if it was passed by Congress.

Related: Warren claims SEC’s Atkins likely misled Congress over enforcement data

The SEC’s approach to crypto under US President Donald Trump and Atkins has many critics accusing the administration of a “pay-to-play scheme.” Democratic lawmakers said in a January letter that Trump and those associated with him had financially benefited from companies that had previously been subject to enforcement actions or potential regulatory entanglements, including Binance, Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Kraken, that were later dropped.

“The SEC’s decision to let those who violated the securities laws go without consequences, together with recent statements by Chair Atkins that ‘most crypto tokens are not securities,’ despite holdings by federal district courts that at least some tokens are securities, has left a vacuum whereby securities violations by crypto firms are not enforced and US investors are not protected,” three Democratic House members said in a January letter to Atkins.

Trump says he partly promoted crypto ‘for politics’

Answering questions from reporters on Monday, Trump said that he “got involved in [crypto] a little bit for politics” after calling Bitcoin (BTC) a “scam” following his first term. He initially said that he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies, but in the lead-up to the 2024 election, began speaking with industry leaders and promoting the technology in public appearances.

Related: AI is banking the unbanked in Africa… faster than crypto

Securitize (SECZ), BlackRock’s tokenization partner, slides 40% after SPAC debut

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Securitize (SECZ), BlackRock’s tokenization partner, slides 40% after SPAC debut

“There is no major negative fundamental catalyst that we can see,” Dorman said. “These kinds of big movements are common after SPACs because the entire investor base turns over from fixed-income-oriented SPAC buyers to new, fundamentally driven long-term equity owners.”

SPAC merger tickers are often volatile in their early days of trading. These vehicles raise money first and seek an acquisition later, allowing a private company to reach the public market by merging with the shell. But once the deal closes, the investor base often turns over, with SPAC arbitrage investors and redemption-focused holders giving way to public-equity investors weighing the company’s fundamentals. That transition can create sharp price swings, particularly when the float is limited or the stock had traded up before the merger.

Crypto IPO hangover

Dorman added that poor performance of recent crypto-related stock listings have conditioned investors to be cautious.

“Given how horrible recent crypto IPOs have been — Coinbase (COIN), Bullish (BLSH), Gemini (GEMI), BitGo (BTGO) and Circle (CRCL) — it’s not that surprising,” Dorman said.

Since its February IPO, digital asset service provider and custodian BitGo tumbled 70%. Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, is down 85% from its September debut. Bullish, CoinDesk’s owner, has fallen over 70% from its $90 debut price in August 2025, and sits below its $37 IPO price.

ETH Outperforms BTC As Investors Turn Attention Toward TradFi Adoption

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ETH Outperforms BTC As Investors Turn Attention Toward TradFi Adoption

Key takeaways:

  • BitMine’s aggressive ETH accumulation has reinforced the $1,500 support despite $8B unrealized losses.
  • Glamsterdam upgrade and Robinhood Chain launch signal stronger TradFi focus for Ethereum’s base layer.

Ether (ETH) price rallied 15% in five days, distancing itself from the $1,500 low hit on June 26. Part of the improvement in investor sentiment can be pinned to the final tests on Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade, targeted for later in 2026. Moreover, BitMine Immersion Technologies’ continued Ether accumulation helped strengthen the support level. Will $2,000 come next?

Total crypto capitalization/USD (left) vs. ETH/USD (right). Source: TradingView

Ether outperformed the total crypto market capitalization by 7% over the past 30 days. Some excitement came from optimism about the passage of the Digital Assets CLARITY Act, a bill that has faced several hurdles advancing in Congress after pushback from the banking sector on stablecoin regulation and potential rewards to its holders.

ETH options 25% delta skew (put-call) at Deribit. Source: Laevitas

Ether’s recent rally toward $1,800 was enough to instill some confidence in ETH options markets as the skew (put-call) metric exited the fear levels that prevailed until Friday. The current 9% premium in put (sell) options relative to equivalent call (buy) instruments is far from bullish, but it distances itself from the 15% mark from the prior week. Levels above 12% typically indicate extreme fear.

Ethereum network upgrade, Robinhood Chain behind ETH price rally

One of Ethereum’s main criticisms lies in its scalability using layer-2 rollups facilitated by data packages (blobs) that drastically reduced transaction fees but triggered fierce debates over long-term data censorship and centralization. Base layer network fees took a hit, which in turn reduced ETH burning and ultimately led to inflationary supply dynamics.

Ethereum base layer monthly network revenue, USD. Source: DefiLlama

The Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade, currently in the testing phase, should improve network processing speeds by allowing more transactions to be processed in parallel. The proposal will also expand capacity for Ethereum to handle more data at higher throughput and reduce database bloat. One goal is providing institutional-grade infrastructure for financial use cases.

BitMine (BMNR US) ETH holdings and shares outstanding. Source: bmnr.rocks

The continued accumulation by the US-listed company BitMine Immersion has likely helped strengthen the $1,500 support. The company increased its holdings by 325,000 ETH over the past month, boosting its reserves to 5.74 million ETH. Regardless of the current $8 billion in unrealized losses on its ETH holdings, BitMine continues its path toward acquiring 5% of the existing supply.

Related: Vitalik Buterin shares priorities for new ‘Lean Ethereum’ strawmap

The launch of Robinhood Chain on July 2, an EVM-compatible Ethereum layer-2 built using Arbitrum technology, helped consolidate the ecosystem with the traditional finance industry. More importantly, Robinhood rolled out tokenized stock trading in more than 120 countries along with major decentralized finance (DeFi) integrations, including Uniswap, 1inch and Morpho.

While Ethereum onchain and derivatives metrics paint a somewhat bearish picture with low network fees and low conviction in options markets, Ether’s upside comes from real-world traditional finance use case growth and network upgrades capable of significantly expanding base layer capacity. Overall, the path to ETH at $2,000 appears entirely viable in the near term.

Polymarket Turns On Instant Bitcoin Deposits Via Lightning Network, Powered By Spark

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Polymarket Turns On Instant Bitcoin Deposits Via Lightning Network, Powered By Spark

Polymarket, the crypto-native prediction market, has begun supporting instant Bitcoin deposits over the Lightning Network. The feature uses infrastructure from Spark, a Bitcoin protocol built for payments and stablecoins. 

In a post on X, Spark told users they can deposit BTC to the platform with more speed and more privacy than the older method offered.

The move extends a funding push that started in October 2025, when Polymarket switched on standard on-chain Bitcoin deposits. Those deposits carried a wait: most on-chain Bitcoin transactions need three to six confirmations, a window of 10 to 60 minutes, before a platform credits an account. 

The on-chain route carried a higher minimum deposit, a reflection of bridging costs. For a trader who wants a position on a live market, both the delay and the fee are a cost.

Lightning and Spark close the gap. Spark validates a Bitcoin transaction at the moment it broadcasts, checking for double-spend risk, fee adequacy, and replace-by-fee flags. 

The protocol credits the deposit in under a second and absorbs the confirmation risk, a design Spark markets as zero-conf. 

Polymarket does not have to manage confirmation thresholds or run its own Lightning nodes; a single Spark SDK handles on-chain, Lightning, and stablecoin rails.

Spark keeps deposits self-custodial. Each wallet ties to the user’s own keys, so the protocol, not Polymarket, carries the operational load, and users retain control of funds until a trade. 

Spark counts wallet providers such as Breez, Xverse, and Cake among the teams building on the same rails, and Tether chief Paolo Ardoino has praised the protocol as a route to programmable Bitcoin over Lightning.

Polymarket’s boom over the years

Timing matters for a company in a growth phase. 

Founded in 2020, Polymarket rose to prominence during the 2024 U.S. presidential election and has added Chainlink oracles, earnings markets, and a fresh contest with regulated rival Kalshi. 

Faster, cheaper funding lowers the barrier for the Bitcoin holders who make up a large share of the crypto audience, and it hands Polymarket a fresh answer to a rival that has pressed it on volume.

Nigel Farage Resigns as MP Amid Crypto ‘Gift’ Scandal, Will Stand in By-Election

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Nigel Farage Resigns as MP Amid Crypto ‘Gift’ Scandal, Will Stand in By-Election

Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK’s Reform party, announced that he would resign as a member of Parliament and stand in the by-election that could replace him.

On Tuesday, Farage announced that he would resign as MP representing Clacton in response to what he called “foul means” by established politicians. The UK lawmaker’s resignation followed reports that he had personally received millions of dollars’ worth of donations and gifts from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster linked to a crypto casino.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong,” said Farage in an X livestream. “I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money.” 

Source: Nigel Farage

Farage already had ties to the crypto industry before reports of the scandal. He spoke at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas and is an investor in London-listed Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Stack. When reports began circulating in May that the Reform leader had received a $6.7 million gift from Harborne, he initially called it a “reward” for campaigning for Brexit, the 2016 referendum that led to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Related: Crypto billionaires bankroll Nigel Farage’s pro-crypto party

The UK lawmaker confirmed that he was the subject of two probes by the UK’s parliamentary standards commissioner following reports of what he called “gifts” from Harborne and Cottrell, which he claimed were given “on an unconditional basis.”

He said that he would use Harborne’s gift for funding related to his security, describing threats and attacks, and that the by-election triggered by his resignation would give voters the opportunity to choose whether or not he will continue to represent them:

“I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions […] I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election.”

According to The London Standard, the election determining Farage’s fate as an MP could take weeks or months given the logistics of his stepping down and calling for a by-election. He won in Clacton with 46.2% of the vote in July 2024 against the Conservative and Labour candidates.

Countdown to US elections with crypto money hanging over candidates

While Farage faces probes in the UK, money from crypto companies and figures tied to the industry could continue to influence US races in November’s midterm elections.

According to a June report from US consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the crypto industry had spent about $189 million to support candidates considered favorable to digital asset policies as part of the 2026 election cycle. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump faces criticism from many lawmakers over his 2025 financial disclosures, which included reporting $1.4 billion in earnings related to crypto.

Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

USDT Leads Payments, USDC Dominates DeFi

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USDT Leads Payments, USDC Dominates DeFi

The world’s biggest stablecoins are increasingly becoming chain-specific financial products, with Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) serving distinct roles across the crypto ecosystem rather than competing head-on.

Dune’s Digital Asset Brief found that USDT overwhelmingly dominates onchain payments. During the first half of 2026, the biggest stablecoin settled about $95 billion in identified commerce payments, compared with $14 billion for second-biggest USDC. It also accounted for roughly 92% of the $48 billion in business-to-business payment volume. On Tron, USDT’s largest network, around 93% of the token’s supply is held in ordinary wallets rather than on exchanges, underscoring its role as a payment and remittance asset.

USDC, meanwhile, has established itself as the dominant stablecoin in decentralized finance. USDC on Base processed roughly $2.6 trillion in transfer volume in June, the highest of any token-chain pair, while on Ethereum, that stablecoin handled another $1.6 trillion. 

USDC on Base recorded daily velocity of about 20 times its circulating supply in June, reflecting its extensive use in trading and DeFi. Source: Dune

The findings suggest the traditional USDT-versus-USDC narrative is becoming less useful. Instead, each stablecoin is carving out its own niche, with USDT dominating payments and USDC underpinning much of crypto’s trading and DeFi activity.

USDT’s supply is split almost evenly between Tron and Ethereum, while USDC remains heavily concentrated on Ethereum despite expanding to newer blockchains. Source: Dune

The findings come as the two digital assets continue to dominate the stablecoin market. Together, they account for roughly 83% of the sector’s approximately $315 billion market capitalization, according to Dune, which tracked more than 200 stablecoin tokens across multiple blockchains.

Related: UN agency moves Stellar blockchain payment initiative beyond pilot stage

US lawmakers reshape stablecoin rules

The stablecoin sector has gained momentum in the United States following the passage of the GENIUS Act. Signed into law in 2025, GENIUS established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, paving the way for banks and other companies to issue US dollar-pegged digital assets.

Lawmakers are now debating the CLARITY Act, which would establish a broader market structure for digital assets by defining when crypto assets fall under the jurisdiction of the US Securities and Exchange Commission or the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. While the bill does not regulate stablecoins directly, it would shape the broader regulatory environment in which stablecoin issuers, exchanges and DeFi platforms operate.

CLARITY cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May and could receive a full Senate vote before the August recess, although Galaxy recently trimmed its odds of passage before the break to 50% as lawmakers run short on time.

Magazine: Kraken’s $600M stablecoin firm, Huione scandal deepens: Asia Express

Bitcoin NUPL Bottom Not Yet in Sight With BTC Due New Lows

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Bitcoin NUPL Bottom Not Yet in Sight With BTC Due New Lows

Bitcoin (BTC) has further to fall for one of its “cleanest cycle clocks” to signal a bear-market bottom, new analysis says.

Key points:

  • One of Bitcoin’s “cleanest cycle clocks” suggests that new macro lows are needed this bear market.
  • The NUPL metric is still in positive territory, setting it apart from previous bear markets.
  • Analysis expects history to repeat with a higher low on a long-term NUPL moving average.

CryptoQuant: Bitcoin NUPL contains “level to watch”

In research published on Monday, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant flagged an incoming profitability floor for the BTC supply.

The onchain metric involved was Net Unrealized Profit/Loss (NUPL), which measures the portion of the supply being held at a higher or lower price versus that at which it last moved. Its score is currently 0.158, a level last seen in early 2023.

“Smoothed into its 30 and 100-day exponential moving averages (EMAs), it becomes one of the cleanest cycle clocks on-chain,” contributor TheChessOnChain commented.

An accompanying chart shows the 100-day EMA of NUPL slowly trending toward cycle bottom levels below zero.

“Every time the 100-day EMA of NUPL fell below zero, Bitcoin was carving its cycle bottom: late 2011 (low near $2), January 2015 ($182), the 2018 bear ($3,206 in December 2018), and the 2022 FTX bottom ($15,792 in November 2022),” TheChessOnChain noted.

Bitcoin NUPL data (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant

At just above $60,000, BTC/USD corresponds to an NUPL 100-day EMA of 0.215, signalling plenty of room left to drop in order to match previous bear-market lows.

CryptoQuant acknowledged that NUPL has put in higher lows throughout Bitcoin’s history, meaning that even a trip below the zero line may not be essential.

“That leaves two paths,” it continued, describing the four extant zero-line crosses as a “pattern, not a law.” 

“Either the 100-day EMA crosses zero as it did at every prior bottom, or this becomes the first cycle to bottom without it, which would fit the shallower-each-time trend.”

No time frame was given for when the next bottom could occur, with CryptoQuant specifying the zero line as the “level to watch in the coming weeks.”

Bear market reversal signals copy history

As Cointelegraph reported, multiple bear-market reversal signals have come from onchain sources in recent weeks, echoing 2022.

Related: $60.4K Becomes ‘most important area’: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Despite these now locking in, market participants broadly expect new macro lows to enter before bulls regain the upper hand.

Last week, fellow CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler Jr. highlighted other supply data presenting mixed signals over short and mid-term BTC price action. Supply in loss, Adler calculated, could still be two months off levels that traditionally correspond to the end of Bitcoin bear markets.

“Until then, it is more accurate to treat capitulation as a process rather than a completed fact,” he wrote.

Crypto exchange Kraken is trying to become a bank in Europe

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Crypto exchange Kraken is trying to become a bank in Europe

Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange planning to go public in the U.S., is pursuing a full banking license in Europe, with a focus on Lithuania as the jurisdiction to secure it, according to a person familiar with the plans.

If the firm gets the license, Kraken would be the only crypto exchange to have such a designation. It will also tread the same regulatory path as fintech major Revolut, which holds a specialized European banking license issued in 2018 and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania. This allowed Revolut to offer full current accounts, consumer lending, and stock trading across the European Economic Area (EEA).

Kraken declined to comment on the plans. A spokesman for the Bank of Lithuania said the licensing process of financial market participants is confidential.

Other fintech firms holding a banking or specialized bank license in Lithuania include Mano Bank, PayRay, European Merchant Bank (EMBank), AB Fjord Bank, and Saldo Bank.

The move to gain full banking status in Europe is part of a broader effort by Payward, Kraken’s parent company, to obtain additional licenses globally.

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