Bitcoin

<h2 id="market-overview">Market Overview 📉</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/99f4307e009d4426b3d51713be98a94f.png"><a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin (BTC)</a> continues to weaken this week, falling 0.15%, despite a strong start to the week. <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Ethereum (ETH)</a> interestingly climbed higher, rising 2.73% in the same period. Total crypto market cap, however, stayed flat for the week, stalling at 2.16T.Weekly <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">liquidations</a> cooled down from the week prior, resetting to usual levels of $3-400M in position liquidated daily. While short liquidations jumped at the start of the week, long liquidations caught up leading into the end of the week. <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/FundingRateHeatMap" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Funding rates</a> show no clear signal, as the market remains divided, with several rising over the week, and others falling instead.📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy announces the purchase of 1,587 BTC for $100M, bringing their total holdings to 846,842. - <a href="https://x.com/saylor/status/2066491610863419722" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Binance is set to lose permission to operate in the EU under the new MiCA laws, after its application is set to be rejected by the Greek market regulator. - <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/binance-set-lose-eu-licence-bid-permission-offer-services-bloc-sources-say-2026-06-16/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Blackrock launches their Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA), which generates yield on Bitcoin holdings via options premium. - <a href="https://x.com/iShares/status/2067306281765830922" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?An incredible week for traditional equities this week as markets ride the positive sentiment from the U.S.-Iran peace deal, sending oil and gold prices plummeting. Despite a strong traditional market, crypto largely failed to follow through, dragged down by the overhand created by Strategy. The S&amp;P 500 is up 1.21% over the week, while the Nasdaq is up a whopping 3.48%.Notable altcoin outperformers this week included <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/jito/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Jito (JTO)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/worldcoin-org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Worldcoin (WLD)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/aerodrome-finance/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Aerodrome Finance (AERO)</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eigencloud/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">EigenCloud (EIGEN)</a>, and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/akash-network/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Akash Network (AKT)</a>.View <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/gainers-losers/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CMC Gainers &amp; Losers board</a><h2 id="narrative-of-the-week">Narrative of the Week 📰</h2>Strategy’s Stretch preferred shares “depeg” significantly, falling under $90 to a low of $82 over this week over fears of the unsustainability of its dividends.📌 STRC depegs to $82, with traders and analysts drawing parallels to Terra-Luna’s marketing of safe yields and its subsequent death spiral in 2022. - <a href="https://x.com/Pentosh1/status/2067609101073293824" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Strategy could continue to sell MSTR shares to bring STRC back to par, as MSTR is still trading above mNAV. Its other option would be to sell more BTC, which currently seems unlikely. - <a href="https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2067616073479078386" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Alternatively, buying back preferred shares and conceding the unsustainability of the dividends could help to protect MSTR in the long run as well. - <a href="https://x.com/krugman87/status/2067779334488703028" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?As one of the primary drivers for Bitcoin in the market, the questionable sustainability of Strategy and yield products hangs over the market, keeping pessimism high as investors and traders wait for the other shoe to drop.<h2 id="major-project-updates">Major Project Updates 🗓️</h2>📌 Coinbase introduces tokenized stocks to their platform, which are 1:1 backed, dividend receiving and redeemable on-chain. - <a href="https://x.com/coinbase/status/2066890566667796530" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Humanity protocol, which suffered an exploit last week, releases their recovery plan, with plans to airdrop a new token, with the same ticker, to all holders prior to the attack. - <a href="https://x.com/Humanityprot/status/2066825020530127313" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Swell Network begins the sunset of their L2, SwellChain. All assets must be withdrawn by 23rd June, or they will be unrecoverable. - <a href="https://x.com/swellnetworkio/status/2067031459731570952" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Polygon zkEVM will be sunsetting on 1 July 2026, as announced in June 2025. Users must migrate their funds off the chain by then. - <a href="https://forum.polygon.technology/t/polygon-zkevm-mainnet-beta-sunset-claim-your-funds/21856" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?Centralized exchanges have been heading down the tokenized stocks route in a bid to retain volumes and users amidst poor sentiment in the crypto space, especially with the regulatory front opening up for them.<h2 id="defi-brief">DeFi Brief 🏦</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/bbbbb0b5d6fe4fa286afd878e64ce9bd.png">Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/</a>📌 Pre-IPO trading venue, Ventuals, sunsets their offerings on Hyperliquid, with their trading pairs halted and settled over the coming week. VHYPE will be redeemable at 1:1 with accrued yield to stakers. - <a href="https://x.com/ventuals/status/2066517389169025294" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Tether announces plans to shut down aUSDT, their dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by gold, due to low demand. Users will need to redeem their XAUT tokens within the next three months. - <a href="https://tether.io/news/tether-updates-users-on-strategic-changes-to-its-product-support-offering/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Plasma launches Plasma One, allowing users who sign up within the first week to get Core tier free for their first year, unlocking rewards in base cashback, referral rewards, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/plasma/status/2067215787945779394" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Morpho introduces confidential vaults with Zama and Steakhouse Financial, allowing users to deposit and earn yield, all without disclosing their balance or strategies. - <a href="https://x.com/Morpho/status/2067189345195610548" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>Why does it matter?Crypto projects continue to wind down as sentiment fails to improve, despite a peace deal in the Middle East and stocks rallying to new highs.<h2 id="fundraises">Fundraises 💰</h2>📌 Stablecoin payment infrastructure layer, Range, raises $8.3M in a Series A funding round, with investors including Maven 11, TX Ventures, SixThirty Ventures, Stellar, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/range_org/status/2067578131863699871" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Internet reward infrastructure layer, EarnOS, raises $18.5M two funding rounds, led by 1kx, with participation from Verona, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/earnos_io/status/2067610931430052194" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Latin American cross-border payments app, El Dorado, raises $9M in a funding round led by Paradigm, with support from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures. - <a href="https://x.com/eldoradoio/status/2066537883951861859" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a>📌 Cross-border payments infrastructure, Trace Finance, raises $32M in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with support from Coinbase Ventures, Hun, Paxos, Jump Capital, and more. - <a href="https://x.com/FinanceTrace/status/2067581089577685369" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Link</a><h2 id="tweet-of-the-week">Tweet of the Week 📝</h2><img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/62de173392d246f6943f0a7073f9412d.png">Source: @mertHe designed STRC with what?

CMC Market Pulse: Strategy-STRC Death Spiral

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