Cryptoccino — Thursday 25 June 2026

Bitcoin miners in the red as hash economics deteriorate. Roughly one in five miners is now operating below break-even at current prices, and the stress is visible at the network level. The combination of post-halving block reward compression and a falling spot price is the most acute margin squeeze since 2023. theblock

Bitcoin Runes traffic hits a two-year peak even as spot price slides. Daily Bitcoin transactions surpassed 820,000, driven by a revival in Runes-protocol activity, a counter-intuitive surge in on-chain usage during a price downturn. Miner fee revenue from the spike provides partial relief to an otherwise compressed margin environment. coindesk

Standard Chartered sets a 50x Aave price target for 2030. The bank argues that tokenised real-world assets migrating into DeFi will drive a structural recovery in Aave’s deposit base, projecting a price of $3,500 by end-2030 from around $70 today. The call arrives as DeFi TVL is down 39% in 2026, with the Kelp DAO hack singled out as a key contributor to the drawdown. theblock coindesk decrypt

Debasement trade unwinds, pulling gold, silver, and BTC together. The macro correlation that had made Bitcoin a hedge against currency debasement is reversing as capital rotates into AI infrastructure plays, with Micron’s earnings beat accelerating the shift. The AI trade is drawing institutional flows that might otherwise have found their way into digital assets. coindesk

Kalshi seeks a $40 billion valuation, sues Illinois, and posts record open interest. The prediction markets platform is in fundraising talks at a valuation eight times what it carried last October, buoyed by World Cup-driven volume that pushed aggregated open interest above $1 billion for the first time. In parallel, Kalshi filed suit against Illinois Governor Pritzker over a state law imposing a 15% gross-receipts tax on sports-related prediction market wagers, set to take effect 1 July. Polymarket saw a 300% volume surge over the same World Cup period, but Kalshi’s OI record and the new fundraise put it firmly ahead on institutional metrics. theblock coindesk theblock cointelegraph_regulation decrypt theblock

Binance drops its Greek MiCA application with one week to the deadline. The exchange pulled its licence filing in Greece after reports that approval would be denied, and co-CEO Richard Teng said Binance remains committed to securing authorisation in another EU jurisdiction before the 1 July MiCA compliance deadline. The move leaves EU-based users in an uncertain position while Binance scrambles for an alternative home. coindesk cointelegraph_regulation theblock decrypt

Abracadabra in emergency mode as MIM loses its dollar peg. The protocol moved to raise interest rates across all Cauldrons to incentivise debt repayment and shrink MIM supply as the stablecoin’s depeg worsened. The incident is another data point in DeFi’s troubled 2026, with TVL already down 39% for the year. cointelegraph_defi cryptobriefing

Pump.fun advertises a chief legal officer role paying up to $5 million. The memecoin launchpad is recruiting its first CLO to manage regulatory exposure across the SEC, MiCA, and UK frameworks, offering between $1 million and $5 million annually. The posting signals that the platform is preparing for a sustained regulatory fight rather than a wind-down. theblock

DOJ seizes Huione Group infrastructure in the largest illicit marketplace takedown on record. Federal agents seized a cloud computing account underpinning Huione Guarantee, the Telegram-based marketplace that Elliptic had traced to more than $134 billion in transactions tied to Southeast Asian scam operations and Chinese money-laundering networks. Elliptic says it provided the critical blockchain intelligence used to trace fraud proceeds back to the Cambodian conglomerate. decrypt elliptic

SecondFi loses $2.4 million in a Cardano wallet exploit, with up to $20 million at risk. The lending protocol confirmed the breach affected its Cardano-based wallet infrastructure, with initial losses confirmed at $2.4 million and a worst-case exposure of $20 million still being assessed. coindesk

Telegram impersonator jailed 15 months for a $1.4 million fake staking scheme. Noman Saleem posed as established crypto influencers on Telegram to lure victims into a fraudulent staking platform before disappearing with the funds. decrypt

Trump pulls out of housing bill, stalling the CBDC ban provision. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act contained a clause blocking the Fed from issuing a CBDC until 2030, but Trump refused to sign it, citing an unrelated elections bill, and called the housing legislation of ‘minor importance’. The move throws the CBDC ban timeline into uncertainty and may complicate passage of other crypto-relevant legislation through the same Congressional session. coindesk cointelegraph_regulation decrypt

Senate turns its attention to Trump’s $500 million UAE deal with World Liberty Financial. Senators are scrutinising the Abu Dhabi sovereign-backed investment in Trump’s crypto venture for potential conflicts of interest, adding political heat to a project that already faces questions about foreign influence in US financial policy. coindesk

Law enforcement groups and Catholic organisations formally oppose the Clarity Act. A coalition of police associations and Catholic leaders submitted objections arguing that the Act’s regulatory certainty provisions would make it materially harder to investigate and prosecute crypto-related crimes. The unusual alliance adds a moral-authority dimension to what had been primarily a technical legislative debate. cointelegraph_regulation theblock

Crypto-backed candidates win primaries in Maryland, New York, and Utah. Fairshake PAC and its affiliates spent $8 million on media supporting successful candidates across three state primaries, extending the industry’s record of translating political spending into electoral outcomes. Critics are sharpening their messaging around ‘crypto billionaire’ influence ahead of general election contests. cointelegraph_regulation

What else is grinding?

• The Cantor Fitzgerald SPAC merger with Adam Back’s Digital Asset Treasury has been delayed, pushing back a closely watched vote on the tie-up. bloomberg_crypto
• Ripple launched its RLUSD stablecoin in Japan via SBI VC Trade, while SBI Group separately debuted JPYSC, the country’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. theblock theblock
• South Korea’s Financial Services Commission folded token securities infrastructure into a broader capital-markets modernisation plan covering faster settlement and longer trading hours. cointelegraph_regulation
• OpenPayd secured a MiCA licence, allowing the Kraken infrastructure provider to offer regulated crypto services across the EU just ahead of the 1 July compliance deadline. cointelegraph_regulation
• Ground, a fintech onchain-yield startup co-founded by a Superstate alumnus, raised $3.6 million pre-seed from Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi as it emerged from stealth. theblock
• Black Lake and Nuva Labs completed the onchain minting of $25 million in mortgage loans on Provenance Blockchain in what both firms are positioning as a scalable RWA template. theblock

Last sip. Binance has seven days to find an EU home it hasn’t named yet.