Good morning everybody.
Bitcoin is trying to find its footing.
After falling below $60,000 earlier this week, it’s managed to climb back above that level, but I wouldn’t call this a recovery. I’d call it a pause.
The charts still look weak.
The sentiment still looks weak.
And while there are certainly reasons to be optimistic over the long term, I can’t shake the feeling that something bigger is brewing beneath the surface of the broader economy.
Maybe I’m wrong.
But there are enough warning signs flashing that they’re becoming difficult to ignore.
Strategy’s Premium Finally Disappears
One of the biggest stories this morning involves Strategy.
The Block reported that the company’s enterprise multiple has now fallen below one, meaning investors are no longer willing to pay a premium for Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury model.
That’s a meaningful psychological shift.
For years, Strategy traded as a leveraged Bitcoin proxy. Investors weren’t just buying the company’s Bitcoin holdings, they were paying extra for Michael Saylor’s strategy itself.
Now that premium has disappeared.
Adding to the pressure, Strategy’s preferred stock continues trading roughly 25% below par, prompting even Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse to publicly question whether the company’s financing model has become a headwind for the broader crypto market.
Whether you agree with him or not, it’s clear the market is starting to scrutinize Strategy much more closely than it has in the past.
Ethereum Treasury Companies Keep Buying
While Strategy faces questions, companies building Ethereum treasuries continue adding to their positions.
SharpLink Gaming purchased another 5,000 ETH worth roughly $7.9 million through FalconX.
What’s interesting is that the purchase comes despite the company sitting on nearly $1.8 billion in unrealized losses.
That’s conviction.
Or stubbornness.
Time will tell which one it turns out to be.
Meanwhile, Solana continued outperforming much of the broader crypto market, climbing roughly 9% as investor sentiment improved around the ecosystem.
Politics Continue Delaying Crypto Legislation
The path toward crypto regulation remains messy.
President Trump’s refusal to sign the housing bill until Congress also advances the SAVE Act continues creating uncertainty around the broader legislative calendar.
That matters because the housing bill contains language banning a Federal Reserve-issued CBDC, while the Clarity Act remains waiting in the Senate.
With Congress expected to recess soon for campaign season, any additional delays could push meaningful crypto legislation into a much more difficult political environment.
Politics and crypto continue moving at very different speeds.
The Bank of England Softens Its Stablecoin Rules
Across the Atlantic, the Bank of England announced a more flexible stablecoin framework.
Rather than imposing strict limits on how much individuals can hold, regulators shifted toward issuer-level oversight, including reserve requirements that allow up to 70% of backing assets to be invested in short-term government debt.
It’s another example of regulators becoming more comfortable with stablecoins while still trying to manage systemic risk.
The direction seems increasingly clear.
Governments aren’t trying to eliminate stablecoins.
They’re trying to regulate them into the existing financial system.
Coinbase’s Layer 2 Has Another Bad Day
Coinbase-backed Base suffered its second maintenance outage in two days.
No customer funds were reported lost, but reliability matters.
As Ethereum Layer 2 networks increasingly become the foundation for consumer apps, DeFi, payments, and AI agent infrastructure, uptime becomes just as important as security.
The question is no longer whether Layer 2s work.
The question is whether they can scale reliably enough to support mainstream adoption.
Leverage Continues Getting Washed Out
CoinDesk reported another $1 billion in leveraged positions being liquidated as Bitcoin briefly reached its weakest levels since September 2024.
Ethereum actually saw more liquidations than Bitcoin over the previous 12 hours, suggesting weakness extends well beyond a single asset.
Meanwhile, rising open interest alongside falling prices suggests traders are continuing to add short positions rather than simply closing longs.
The bears remain in control.
Crypto Prices
Bitcoin (BTC): $60,460
Ethereum (ETH): $1,588
BNB: $563
XRP: $1.06
Solana (SOL): $72.27
Tron (TRX): $0.32
Hyperliquid (HYPE): $63.65
Dogecoin (DOGE): $0.075
Litecoin (LTC): $42.96
Total Crypto Market Cap: $2.1 Trillion
Fear & Greed Index: 17 (Extreme Fear)
RSI: 47
My Take
The story that grabbed my attention today wasn’t actually crypto.
It was Apple.
Apple quietly raised prices across much of its product lineup. Mac Studios, MacBooks, iPads, HomePods, Apple TV—many of them became significantly more expensive.
The official explanation is rising component costs, especially memory and compute driven by AI demand.
I believe that’s part of the story.
But I also think something else may be happening.
For the past couple of years, many companies absorbed higher costs rather than immediately passing them on to consumers. They protected market share, accepted slightly lower margins, and hoped inflation would cool.
Maybe that strategy is ending.
Apple has enormous pricing power. If they’re finally deciding it’s time to raise prices by hundreds of dollars, I can’t help but wonder if they’re telling us something about underlying inflation that hasn’t fully shown up in the headline numbers yet.
At the same time, the S&P 500 continues looking historically expensive by several valuation measures, while Treasury yields are becoming increasingly competitive with equities.
If investors can earn attractive returns in government bonds without taking stock market risk, at what point does money begin rotating out of equities?
I’m not predicting doom.
I’m simply asking questions.
Because between inflation, elevated valuations, geopolitical uncertainty, weakening crypto markets, and increasingly attractive bond yields, something feels different.
Maybe it’s nothing.
Or maybe we’re watching the early stages of a much larger shift.