Good morning everybody.
Bitcoin is still holding around the $64,000 to $65,000 range, but the market remains quiet. Dogecoin briefly looked like the strongest breakout at roughly 4%, which tells you something about how little momentum there is across the rest of crypto.
Traders are still targeting the $70,000 to $72,000 range for Bitcoin, but for now the market remains stuck in this strange holding pattern.
Poolin Files for Bankruptcy
Poolin, once the largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey alongside two U.S. affiliates.
The company reportedly has approximately $173 million in debt.
At its peak in 2019, Poolin controlled roughly 18% to 20% of the global Bitcoin hash rate. The company later froze customer withdrawals in 2022 and issued approximately $163.7 million in IOU tokens to around 11,700 customers.
One of the primary recovery options for creditors is a proposed $52 million bid for Poolin’s West Texas mining sites.
Bitcoin Treasury Companies Are Selling
Several digital-asset treasury companies have sold Bitcoin to repay debt, fund operations, finance stock buybacks, or strengthen their cash reserves.
The companies include Strategy, Smarter Web, Sequans, Nakamoto, Empory Digital, and others.
Among the disclosed sales:
Satuma shareholders approved the sale of approximately 668 Bitcoin
Smarter Web sold around 178 Bitcoin
Sequans sold approximately 1,025 Bitcoin
These companies were originally presented as major sources of institutional Bitcoin demand. Now some of them are being forced to sell the asset to support their underlying businesses and balance sheets.
CLARITY Act Likely Delayed
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the CLARITY Act is unlikely to pass before the Senate begins its extended summer recess.
White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt pushed back slightly, suggesting that the first week of August could still provide a path forward. However, he also acknowledged that a final vote in July is unlikely.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon supports advancing the legislation, arguing that it would provide greater regulatory stability and allow digital-asset markets to develop properly.
That puts Goldman at odds with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other banking executives who oppose provisions that could allow crypto companies to offer yield-bearing stablecoin products resembling bank deposits without equivalent banking regulation.
Banks Want to Protect Their Moat
Stablecoins absolutely need regulation.
Issuers should be required to prove that every token is backed one-for-one by actual reserves. Fractional reserve practices should not be allowed because customers may redeem those assets at any time.
But that is different from established banks using regulation to prevent competitors from offering better products.
If a stablecoin company can offer consumers yield, faster transactions, or more efficient payments while maintaining full reserves and complying with reasonable rules, banks should not be allowed to shut that product out simply because it threatens their business model.
That is not a free market. It is regulatory capture designed to build a moat around the traditional banking industry.
India Moves Against Jack Dorsey’s BitChat
India’s cybercrime agency ordered GitHub to remove repositories associated with BitChat, Jack Dorsey’s offline Bluetooth mesh-messaging application.
BitChat is designed to relay encrypted messages and Bitcoin transactions without internet access, centralized servers, phone numbers, or conventional user accounts.
Indian authorities argued that the system interferes with lawful interception, attribution, and criminal investigations.
There are legitimate concerns about criminals using encrypted systems. But the existence of illegal activity does not justify banning privacy tools for everyone.
Law enforcement should pursue criminals. It should not automatically criminalize technology merely because that technology operates beyond constant surveillance. People still have a right to private communication.
BitMEX Faces a $40 Million Lawsuit
BitMEX is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit from BKX Services and David Namdar alleging unfair liquidations and withheld collateral.
The lawsuit involves approximately 622.66 Bitcoin, valued at around $40.7 million, allegedly owed to the plaintiffs.
The complaint claims BitMEX designed its system to retain customer collateral and allowed an internal trading desk to access private customer data and continue trading during server outages while ordinary users could not close their positions.
The lawsuit comes as BitMEX prepares to close permanently on September 23, ending an 11-year run as one of crypto’s most influential derivatives exchanges.
Robinhood CEO’s Account Promotes Fake Meme Coin
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was compromised and used to promote a fraudulent meme coin called VladHood.
The fake promotion claimed the token had become the official mascot of Robinhood Chain and had been listed inside the Robinhood app.
The incident shows how quickly attackers can combine a compromised social-media account with a newly created token. Once the trusted account posts the promotion, the attacker only needs enough people to buy before removing the liquidity and disappearing.
Ripple Launches RLUSD Platform
Ripple launched Ripple Mint, an automated institutional platform for creating, redeeming, bridging, and tracking its dollar-backed RLUSD stablecoin.
Ripple has also expanded RLUSD to additional networks, including:
XRP Ledger EVM Sidechain
Base
Optimism
Ink
Unichain
Ripple also invested in Notabene to integrate RLUSD into business-payment compliance infrastructure.
RLUSD has grown to approximately $1.5 billion in market capitalization, although its monthly transfer volume has fallen around 25%. That suggests the stablecoin is increasingly being held rather than actively transferred or used for payments.
Coinbase Introduces AI Payments and Trading
Coinbase business customers can now accept payments initiated by AI agents through the x402 protocol.
These agents can make payments in USDC through Coinbase’s payment infrastructure.
Coinbase is also introducing agentic trading tools that allow users to issue natural-language instructions such as:
“Buy Ethereum if it drops 5%.”
Users can then monitor the execution and track the orders while the system carries out the strategy automatically.
This is a meaningful step toward autonomous financial agents interacting directly with crypto markets and payment systems.
SEC Pays to Settle Coinbase Records Lawsuit
The SEC agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by History Associates on behalf of Coinbase.
The lawsuit sought documents related to the SEC’s investigations into Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake and earlier cryptocurrency enforcement actions.
The case reportedly forced the agency to release thousands of documents and exposed deleted texts and data from the phones of senior officials, including former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
There was clearly more happening inside the SEC’s crypto enforcement operation than the public was initially told.
Crypto Prices
Bitcoin: $64,207
Ethereum: $1,859
Tether: #3
BNB: $560
USDC: #5
XRP: $1.09
Solana: $74.35
TRON: $0.33
Hyperliquid: $50.18
Dogecoin: $0.068
Total Market Cap: $2.19 trillion
Fear & Greed Index: 35, Fear
My Take
The market is still searching for a reason to move.
Bitcoin treasury companies are beginning to sell assets to cover debt and operating expenses. One of the largest historical mining pools is bankrupt. The CLARITY Act is getting delayed again. At the same time, traditional banks are trying to shape stablecoin regulation in a way that protects their own businesses.
That does not mean the industry has stopped developing. Coinbase is integrating AI agents into payments and trading. Ripple is expanding institutional stablecoin infrastructure. Privacy tools are continuing to develop even as governments push back against them.
The market may look quiet, but the infrastructure, regulatory fights, and financial pressure underneath it are anything but quiet.
Happy Hodling, Everyone.