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Bitcoin Joins Stocks Ignoring Macro Pressures To Eye $67,000

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Bitcoin Joins Stocks Ignoring Macro Pressures To Eye $67,000

Bitcoin (BTC) built on gains at Tuesday’s Wall Street open as crypto echoed resilient US stock markets.

Key points:

  • BTC price action approached $67,000 despite new geopolitical and macroeconomic pressures.
  • Neither the US-Iran war nor proposed international trade tariffs were able to disrupt risk-asset upside.
  • Bitcoin needed a reclaim of its 21-week simple moving average to challenge the bear market, analysis warned.

Bitcoin, stocks ignore Iran war, fresh US tariffs

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $67,000, closing in on seven-week highs.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Upward momentum that began the day showed little signs of stopping despite macro conditions that seem to favor a risk-off mindset.

The US-Iran war saw further escalation on the day as Iran struck Amazon facilities in Bahrain in response to US strikes, while the Strait of Hormuz oil route remained closed.

As a result, WTI crude oil prices reached their highest levels in over a month, nearing $85 per barrel.

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Multiple media reported US president Donald Trump plans to introduce new 10% international trade tariffs. These would follow 50% measures imposed on Canada this week.

Despite these notional headwinds for crypto and risk assets, traders attributed the lack of bearish reactions to expectations that the situation would ultimately resolve in markets’ favor.

“Markets are pricing in peace,” YouTube channel host Crypto Rover summarized in a post on X to their 1.6 million followers.

Caleb Franzen, creator of Bitcoin and macro analysis resource Cubic Analytics, was confident about the near-term trend in the S&P 500 index.

“I reiterate… I have zero fear, concern, or worry with S&P 500 futures looking like this,” he told X followers on Monday.

S&P 500 futures one-day chart. Source: Caleb Franzen/X

To be sure, words of caution came from figures such as JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, who warned that markets were treating current risks too lightly.

BTC price needs 21-week trendline reclaim: Analyst

While some traders looked for a retest of levels up to and including $70,000, Keith Alan, cofounder of trading resource Material Indicators, was conversely cautious on the BTC price outlook.

Related: Trader maintains $67K BTC price target: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Despite a “golden cross” involving the 21-day and 50-day simple moving averages (SMAs) on Monday, the bear market, he warned, had gone nowhere.

“Bear Markets don’t always look like Bear Markets, especially in lower timeframes,” he wrote in his latest X analysis.

“The macro trend will be challenged if Bitcoin pushes above the 21-Week SMA. Until that happens, the Bear Market remains intact.”

BTC/USD one-day chart with 21-week, 50-week SMA.
Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 21-week SMA stood at $69,720 at the time of writing, coinciding with Bitcoin’s then-all-time high from 2021.

Alan acknowledged that there was “no real resistance” until $67,250.

Russia Completes Final Readings on Crypto Regulation Bill

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Russia Completes Final Readings on Crypto Regulation Bill

Russia’s lawmakers moved the country closer to its first comprehensive crypto market framework after completing final readings on a bill that would regulate digital asset activity.

Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, approved bill No. 1194918-8, titled “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” in its second and third readings on Tuesday, according to official parliamentary records.

If enacted, the bill would establish rules for crypto market participants, including exchanges, brokers, asset managers and custodians, while allowing crypto assets to be used in foreign trade operations.

The vote marks Russia’s biggest legislative step toward a regulated crypto market to date, although the bill still requires approval by the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin’s signature before it becomes law.

Russia gives central bank key role in crypto framework

The bill would give the Bank of Russia broad oversight of the regulated market, including authority to determine which crypto assets may be offered through licensed intermediaries and to issue implementing regulations.

It would also establish five categories of regulated market participants — crypto exchanges, brokers, asset managers, custodians and exchange service providers — defining who can buy, sell, hold and exchange crypto assets under the new framework.

Source: The State Duma

The bill introduces different rules for qualified and non-qualified investors. Non-qualified investors would face a 300,000-ruble (about $3,800) annual limit on crypto purchases through a single intermediary and a 100,000-ruble limit on transfers abroad. Qualified investors would face annual limits of 3 million rubles for purchases and 1 million rubles for transfers abroad.

The bill would continue to prohibit the use of crypto assets to pay for goods and services inside Russia. At the same time, it would allow crypto assets to be used in foreign trade operations, reflecting Russia’s broader effort to facilitate cross-border settlements outside traditional payment infrastructure.

Implementation expected to begin in 2026

Most of the bill’s provisions would take effect on Sept. 1, 2026, if the president signs the bill into law. Lawmakers also included a transition period through July 1, 2027, giving market participants time to comply with the new rules.

After the transition period ends, market participants would have to conduct crypto transactions through regulated organizations. Banks would also have to reject transactions that do not comply with the new framework, according to the bill.

Related: Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa-Bank, tests crypto trading

Russian lawmakers are also working on related draft bills covering crypto taxation and penalties for violations of the new framework. A separate tax bill has already passed its first reading, while lawmakers expect bills establishing penalties for violations to pass before the transition period ends.

Law is only the first step

Olga Goncharova, head of the Digital Financial Assets and Digital Currencies Expert Center at the Association of Russian Banks, said the bill would create a legal framework but would still require extensive follow-up regulation before the market can operate.

“The law itself is only the beginning,” Goncharova told Cointelegraph, adding: “Whether it works in practice depends on several mechanisms that are still being developed by the banking community together with the Bank of Russia.”

Related: MiCA licensing only the beginning as crypto custodians face scrutiny

Goncharova said the Bank of Russia plans to issue about 80 additional regulatory acts by the end of the year to define how the new framework will work in practice. She added that she expects the president to sign the bill into law in the coming days.

She also said the banking industry and the central bank are developing key infrastructure, including a domestic Travel Rule system, blockchain node infrastructure and crypto analytics tools, to support the regulated market.

Magazine: Will the US get CLARITY this week? Bitcoin’s new $80K target: Hodler’s Digest, July 19

Bitcoin, ether rally on Clarity progress report, Asian chip stock rebound: Crypto Markets Today

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Bitcoin, ether rally on Clarity progress report, Asian chip stock rebound: Crypto Markets Today

The crypto market rallied on reports suggesting the final hurdle for the long-awaited U.S. Clarity Act may have cleared.

Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto in America, posted on X that President Donald Trump had agreed to a crucial ethics provision for the crypto market structure bill. The specific language has been shared with a group of Senate Republicans, marking a significant step forward for the legislation.

The ethics provision is a major sticking point in holding back the bill’s passage through Senate. The legislation aims to provide a definitive regulatory framework, clearly distinguishing between digital commodities and securities to end years of enforcement-led oversight.

Bitcoin BTC$66,612.89 rallied above $66,000, gaining 3.5% in 24 hours to its highest in just over a month. Othe cryptocurrencies, including ether (ETH), BNB BNB$575.05 and XRP (XRP) posted even larger gains. Among industry, the standout is the CoinDesk DeFi Select Index, which surged 9%.

Additional tailwinds came from Asia, where the selloff in semiconductor stocks that dragged crypto lower last week reversed, fueling to a broad risk rally.

Russia passes historic crypto rules to regulate trading and target foreign trade

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Russia passes historic crypto rules to regulate trading and target foreign trade

Russia’s State Duma passed legislation establishing the country’s first comprehensive framework for regulating cryptocurrencies with most of the new rules set to take effect on Sept. 1.

The law creates a legal framework for crypto exchanges, depositories and other digital asset providers, while setting rules for who can buy crypto and under what conditions, Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS reported Tuesday.

Only organizations included in a special registry will be permitted to operate as cryptocurrency exchanges, although firms will be allowed to continue operating without registration until July 1, 2027.

Under the new law, banks will be required to refuse transfers if they suspect an unauthorized entity is operating a cryptocurrency exchange.

The legislation also guarantees judicial protection for holders of digital currencies regardless of whether the assets were previously declared.

Retail investors will be allowed to buy the most liquid cryptocurrencies through licensed intermediaries, subject to an annual limit equivalent to roughly $3,800 per intermediary. Qualified investors will be able to purchase any crypto without restrictions.

Stablecoin bank Augustus raises $180 million to build a clearing bank for the AI era

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Stablecoin bank Augustus raises $180 million to build a clearing bank for the AI era

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank for fintechs and financial institutions, said it raised $180 million to expand its dollar payment infrastructure as stablecoins reshape global finance.

The fundraising valued the company at $1 billion, with Tiger Global leading the round and investors such as Hummingbird, QED and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel participating, the company said in a Tuesday press release.

The investment comes as banks, fintechs and crypto firms are racing to modernize the infrastructure behind cross-border payments. While much of the attention has centered on stablecoin issuers, Augustus is targeting a less visible but crucial part of the financial system: correspondent banking.

“We think distribution breaks at the clearing bank layer,” CEO Ferdinand Dabitz told CoinDesk in an interview. Legacy clearing systems are “slow, unavailable, take two days to settle and close on the weekends,” he argued.

Taking on correspondent banking

The firm is building what Dabitz described as an “AI-native” clearing bank designed around stablecoins, programmable money and always-on settlement.

Augustus doesn’t plan to issue its own stablecoin, Dabitz said. Instead, it wants to provide the banking infrastructure that lets financial institutions move money across traditional payment systems and blockchain networks.

Clarity odds jump to 43% on Polymarket after unverified reports Trump agreed to ethics deal

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Clarity odds jump to 43% on Polymarket after unverified reports Trump agreed to ethics deal

Polymarket traders sharply raised the odds of the Clarity Act becoming law this year after reports that President Trump reportedly agreed to the ethics provision that had stalled the bill.

The market pricing whether the crypto market structure bill is signed into law in 2026 rose to about 43% on the predictons market on Monday, compared to 32% on Friday. This was its lowest level since the market started trading in January.

The jump tracked a series of reports that the final sticking point in months of negotiations had been cleared.

Democrats have not seen the bill text, a source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk, and no text has been publicly released. The White House and the offices of the senators involved had not commented.

Ethics has been the last major obstacle to the Clarity Act, which would create the first comprehensive federal framework for digital assets and split oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Morpho Launches Fixed-Rate Lending Protocol on Base

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Morpho Launches Fixed-Rate Lending Protocol on Base

Lending protocol Morpho has launched Morpho Midnight on Base, adding fixed-rate, fixed-term loans to its onchain credit network alongside the variable-rate markets offered through Morpho Blue. 

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Morpho said the offer-driven protocol lets lenders and borrowers propose their own interest rates, maturities and other loan terms instead of relying on a protocol-defined utilization curve. Loans are issued as fixed obligations, with terms set through competing offers rather than algorithmic pool pricing. 

Predictable rates and defined maturities are standard features of traditional credit markets. However, they remain uncommon in decentralized finance (DeFi), where borrowing costs generally fluctuate based on market utilization. Fixed terms could make onchain lending more attractive to institutions and businesses that need to manage funding costs, returns and risk exposure in advance. 

A Morpho spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Midnight is live on the Base mainnet, initially supporting cbBTC and USDC across multiple maturity dates. The spokesperson said Morpho deliberately kept the launch contained as part of a progressive rollout that prioritizes security.

The spokesperson said crypto-native lenders, borrowers and curators already active on Morpho Blue had shown interest in Midnight. Several unidentified enterprises and institutions are also building products on the protocol in beta, with announcements expected as those products go live.

Morpho’s fixed-rate lending plans take shape

Morpho first outlined the fixed-rate system in 2025 under a broader “Morpho V2” roadmap. It described an intent-based, peer-to-peer marketplace where users could submit custom offers, price loans through market demand and keep capital earning variable yield until a fixed-rate offer was matched. 

In April, Morpho named the fixed-rate protocol Midnight and clarified that it was not a replacement for Morpho Blue. While Blue provides open-ended, variable-rate lending pools, Midnight externalizes loan risk, interest rate and duration to market participants. 

The protocol then released Midnight’s whitepaper and codebase in May, saying that its “offered capital” model was intended to avoid a recurring problem for fixed-rate DeFi protocols: liquidity being locked or fragmentation across maturity dates.

Related: Grayscale plans regular cash payouts from ETH, SOL staking rewards

Midnight’s launch follows Morpho’s $175 million funding round in June, led by Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital. At the time, Morpho said it planned to expand integrations with banks, asset managers and large platforms while adding features associated with traditional credit markets. 

Morpho’s infrastructure already underpins variable-rate lending products distributed through major crypto platforms. In April, Coinbase launched Morpho-powered USDC loans for United Kingdom users, allowing them to borrow against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and cbETH on Base. 

The loans carried variable rates and no fixed repayment schedule, illustrating the open-ended borrowing model that Midnight intends to complement. 

Magazine: Ethereum’s EEZ could pull other blockchains into its orbit

MoneyGram’s CEO says blockchain works best when customers don’t know it’s there

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MoneyGram’s CEO says blockchain works best when customers don’t know it’s there

In attempting to modernize and better meet its customers’ needs, MoneyGram has partnered with the Stellar network, which has underpinned many of the company’s blockchain initiatives over the past five years. But the company has also started exploring other ecosystems: while Stellar remains a core partner, MoneyGram has also become a validator on Solana and Tempo. For MoneyGram, the immediate payoff isn’t speculative crypto activity, it’s replacing legacy financial rails.

Today’s cross-border settlement still largely depends on banking hours and weekday processing. Blockchain-based infrastructure, Soohoo argued, enables real-time settlement around the clock, reducing operational costs while improving the customer experience.

“We believe if we do it right, we can achieve all three,” he said, referring to helping customers save time, effort and money. Instant settlement also allows MoneyGram to lower back-office costs, savings the company hopes to eventually pass on through lower prices. Currently, MoneyGram’s fees start at $1.89 and vary depending on what country you send them to.

Soohoo doesn’t believe consumers need to understand the technology powering those improvements. He compared blockchain to the processors inside Apple’s iPhone.

“I can’t tell you what processor is inside my iPhone,” he said. “I just know it’s faster.” In the same way, he argued, remittance customers care about whether money arrives quickly and reliably, not whether it traveled over a blockchain.

Twenty One Capital CEO steps down as Tether’s plans to merge three bitcoin firms falls

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Twenty One Capital CEO steps down as Tether’s plans to merge three bitcoin firms falls

Tether-controlled Twenty One Capital (XXI) named Raphael Zagury as CEO, replacing Jack Mallers, and dropped Strike from a proposed three-way merger, the companies said.

Mallers stepped down effective July 20 to focus on Strike, the bitcoin payments firm he founded. Strike will remain independent and is no longer being considered for a business combination with Twenty One, according to a press release.

Tether, Twenty One’s controlling shareholder, confirmed the changes in a separate announcement.

Tether proposed combining Twenty One, Strike and Elektron in April, seeking to place bitcoin treasury, financial services and mining under one listed company.

Twenty One’s revised strategy will focus on acquiring operating businesses, expanding capital markets capabilities and developing bitcoin-backed lending.

XXI is little changed in pre-market trading.

CoinDesk has reached out to all three companies, but hasn’t heard back at the time of writing.

More MiCA-Licensed Crypto Firms Could Leave EU Market: Gate Europe CEO

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More MiCA-Licensed Crypto Firms Could Leave EU Market: Gate Europe CEO

Crypto companies already licensed under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) could still exit the market as compliance costs mount, according to Gate Europe’s CEO.

Giovanni Cunti told Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction on Monday that stricter regulatory requirements have made it increasingly difficult for new entrants to compete and that some licensed firms could ultimately be unable to absorb the ongoing costs of operating under the framework.

“I think there are going to be quite a few more of the ones that acquire MiCA license that will not be capable to sustain the cost and the resources that are needed to carry on this business in the long term,” Cunti said.

MiCA is the EU’s regulatory framework for crypto assets. The bloc’s 18-month transition period ended on July 1, requiring crypto firms serving EU customers to operate under authorization or cease offering regulated services.

The deadline prompted several exchanges to restrict or withdraw services in parts of Europe while licensed firms began operating under the new regime. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, was not able to secure a MiCA license before the deadline.

Compliance costs reshape Europe’s crypto market

Cunti also warned that MiCA’s stricter regulatory requirements could drive some crypto startups and projects outside Europe. While the framework has strengthened investor protections, he said it leaves less room for innovation than jurisdictions with lighter rules.

He said some projects may choose to launch in jurisdictions with less restrictive regulatory requirements instead of navigating the bloc’s compliance regime.

“We may need to be prepared that some projects, possibly some important projects, may be looking at other jurisdictions with different guidelines,” he said.

Related: ESMA MiCA warning puts Binance EU service changes under scrutiny

To be sure, the number of companies authorized under MiCA continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace. 

On Friday, the European Securities and Markets Authority added 14 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to its register, bringing the total to 294 after adding 37 firms in ESMA’s first update following the July 1 transition deadline.

Cunti said the higher regulatory burden is reshaping Europe’s competitive landscape, but the shrunken market also presents an opportunity for those remaining crypto service providers. 

“There was a market with thousands of operators, and now there is a market with only hundreds,” Cunti said.

“So definitely there is a big opportunity for all of us. There is an ongoing migration because customers do not want to lose access to this market,” he added. 

Magazine: The British Virgin Islands are a top crypto hub no one ever talks about: Here’s why

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