Last week Reuters? No. This article is rewritten. A $1.26 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was executed via a dark pool by an unidentified seller, according to analysis from NYDIG’s head of research, Greg Cipolaro. The move, involving 29.2 million IBIT shares, is interpreted by Cipolaro as evidence of a large directional holder exiting a concentrated bet rather than a routine unwind of a basis trade. The seller reportedly accepted the sale at about $1.01 below the prevailing market price of $44.17, effectively paying roughly $29.5 million in exchange for immediate execution.

The trade drew attention not only for its size but for the mechanics: a private venue, not a public market, and a sizable discount to immediate liquidation. Such characteristics are often associated with institutional liquidity needs, but Cipolaro cautioned that the available data cannot definitively distinguish between a forced liquidity event and a deliberate portfolio repositioning. “While the transaction details themselves cannot answer that question, they do demonstrate that at least one sophisticated holder was willing to pay approximately $29.5 million to eliminate a $1.26 billion bitcoin-linked position immediately,” he noted in his research release.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, faced a cautious reaction. The day of the IBIT block sale saw BTC retreat around 2.8%, though market observers noted that the move was absorbed without triggering a broader rout, a view echoed by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. “The market absorbed the sale well,” Balchunas observed at the time.

“The key unanswered question is whether the seller was responding to idiosyncratic constraints or expressing a broader investment view.”

Beyond the immediate price action, the activity fed into a broader tailwind of ETF outflows. Farside Investors’ data show US-listed Bitcoin ETFs extending a streak of net outflows to 11 straight trading days, with a $333.6 million outflow recorded on the same day as the IBIT sale. In total, more than $2.9 billion has flowed out of these funds since May 14, marking a meaningful shift in near-term demand for BTC exposure through traditional exchange-traded vehicles.

The behavioral backdrop accompanying these flows is tepid at best. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index registered a score of 29 out of 100 on Monday, signaling fear in the market, and the index tracked an average “fear” rating for May. These sentiment readings dovetail with a period of uncertainty around large, liquidations and the durability of ETF-driven demand in the BTC space.

Key takeaways

• A single $1.26 billion IBIT block trade, executed via a dark pool, points to a large directional exit rather than a routine unwind of a basis trade.
• Execution details — 29.2 million shares sold at roughly $43.16 versus a market price of $44.17, and a $29.5 million premium for immediate liquidity — imply a deliberate, time-urgent disposition of a large position.
• Bitcoin’s 2.8% daily drop did not trigger a broader collapse in perception, with market observers noting the move was absorbed relatively smoothly per analysts.
• ETF outflows remained a defining theme, with US-listed BTC ETFs recording 11 straight days of net withdrawals and over $2.9 billion out since May 14, according to Farside Investors.

Market dynamics and what to watch next

The first week of June may turn crypto’s 2025 policy wins into hard deadlines. Comment periods for the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin rules start closing this week, reaching the point where a federal framework stops being statute and becomes the operating rules issuers have to build to.

What gets settled in those windows decides who can issue, what reserves they hold and whether yield survives. Banks have spent the past few months pushing to slow the rollout, a fight over yield-bearing stablecoins that has already stalled the Clarity Act for months. The Senate floor opens June 3 to try again.

The value of stablecoins in circulation, which Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s global head of market development, called the “bridge between traditional finance and digital liquidity,” has kept rising and hit a record $322 billion in late May. The ECB is now warning these instruments could cement dollar dominance.

Macro and geopolitical impact will also need to be closely monitored. While economic data will provide further hints on the Fed’s future policy direction, an earlier-than-expected ceasefire in the Middle East could revive risk appetite.

What to Watch

(All times ET)

• Crypto
  • June 2: Comment periods for GENIUS Act stablecoin frameworks close for the Treasury, FDIC and FinCEN/OFA
  • June 3: The Senate floor window reopens to consolidate the Clarity Act into a single vehicle with CFTC provisions and GENIUS Act updates, targeting a August signing.
  • Q3: Ethereum to move forward with the ‘Glamsterdam’ upgrade, featuring parallel execution, ePBS MEV reforms, a 200M gas limit target, and lower layer-1 transaction fees.
• Macro
  • June 1, 10 a.m.: U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI for May est. 52.6 (Prev. 52.7); Prices est. 85.3 (Prev. 84.6)
  • June 1, 6 p.m.: South Korea Inflation Rate YoY for May est. 3.0% (Prev. 2.6%)
  • June 2, 5 a.m.: Eurozone Inflation Rate YoY Flash for May est. 3.3% (Prev. 3.0%); Core Inflation YoY Flash est. 2.4% (Prev. 2.2%)
  • June 2, 10 a.m.: U.S. JOLTs Job Openings for April est. 6.8M (Prev. 6.866M)
  • June 3, 8:15 a.m.: U.S. ADP Employment Change for May est. 110K (Prev. 109K)
  • June 3, 10 a.m.: U.S. ISM Services PMI for May est. 53.6 (Prev. 53.6)
  • June 4, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for period ending May 30 est. 216K (Prev. 215K)
  • June 5, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls for May est. 96K (Prev. 115K); Unemployment Rate est. 4.3% (Prev. 4.3%)
  • June 5, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Average Hourly Earnings MoM for May est. 0.3% (Prev. 0.2%)
  • June 7: OPEC+ 41st Ministerial Meeting and 66th JMMC
• Earnings
  • June 1: HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), post-market, -$0.22

Token Events

• Governance Votes & Calls
  • Superfluid DAO is voting on continuing the yield backends for both ETHx and USDCx with their current code across all networks. Voting ends on June 1.
  • ENS DAO is voting on a social proposal to determine the structural framework and election timeline for Term 7 of its working groups. Voting ends on June 1.
  • ShapeShift DAO is voting to distribute $150,681.30 of unallocated exploit revenue to affected DeFi communities and to add discostu to the engineering workstream for business development. Voting ends on June 2 and June 3.
  • Decentraland DAO is voting on lowering the voting power (VP) threshold for governance proposals from 6 million to 5 million or less, aiming to address declining voter participation. Voting ends on June 2.
  • 1inch Network DAO is voting to renew its recognized delegate program for 12 months with an updated $220,000 budget and stricter performance criteria. Voting ends on June 3.
  • Arbitrum DAO is voting on proposals to fund the Arbitrum Foundation with $16M in RWAs, 1,740 ETH, and 230M ARB for continued operations, and to transition Arbitrum Nova into a minimized, low-cost maintenance state. Voting ends on June 4.
  • Lightchain AI DAO is voting on migrating 4.42 billion LCAI from its Ethereum-based treasury to its native Lightchain mainnet DAO treasury at a 1:1 ratio, and on approving a BitMart listing agreement and $30,000 listing fee. Voting ends on June 5 and 6.
• Unlocks
  • June 1: SUI$0.8809 to unlock 0.36% of its circulating supply worth $12.88 million.
  • June 5: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 2.07% of its circulating supply worth $15.17 million.
  • June 6: Hyperliquid (HYPE) to unlock 2.54% of its circulating supply worth $673 million.
• Token Launches
  • June 1: Venice (VVV) reduces token emissions by 1 million tokens per year.
  • June 1: Drift (DRIFT) to be delisted from Upbit Korea.
  • June 2: Sei (SEI) to unveil a “new blockchain revaluation framework for financial services” with Mastercard.
  • June 4: Augur hard fork deadline.

Conferences

Key Takeaways

• Micron achieved a $1 trillion valuation momentarily on May 26 following UBS’s price target increase to $1,625 — representing the most aggressive forecast among 46 Wall Street firms tracking the company.
• Shares surged 17.4% that session, extending gains to over 220% year-to-date and a remarkable 830% over the trailing twelve months.
• Second quarter fiscal results showed revenue climbing nearly threefold to $23.86 billion, while adjusted earnings per share of $12.20 crushed expectations of $9.19.
• The company’s entire 2026 allocation of HBM (high-bandwidth memory) has been fully committed, with next-generation HBM4 production already underway for Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin architecture.
• Analyst consensus leans heavily toward “Strong Buy,” with firms pointing to constrained AI memory availability that may extend into 2027.

Micron achieved a landmark valuation that caught many market watchers off guard when it briefly surpassed $1 trillion in market capitalization on May 26. Shares rocketed 17.4% to close at $881.60, after touching a 19.3% intraday peak, following UBS’s decision to nearly triple its price objective from $535 to $1,625.

Micron Technology, Inc., MU

This figure stands as the most optimistic projection among the 46 investment firms actively monitoring the semiconductor manufacturer.

The surge represents the culmination of an extraordinary performance period. Micron shares have skyrocketed more than 220% since the beginning of the year and climbed over 830% across the past twelve months, fueled by exceptional quarterly results, constrained supply conditions, and surging AI-related memory chip requirements.

Earnings Performance Driving the Momentum

Micron’s second fiscal quarter delivered results that fundamentally altered the company’s narrative. Revenue expanded nearly three times versus the prior year to reach $23.86 billion, compared to $8.05 billion previously. Net income registered at $13.79 billion, translating to $12.07 per diluted share, a dramatic improvement from $1.58 billion twelve months earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share of $12.20 significantly exceeded the Street consensus estimate of $9.19. Gross profit margin reached approximately 75%, demonstrating the substantial pricing leverage Micron has established during this upcycle.

Adjusted free cash flow totaled $6.9 billion for the period. The company closed the quarter with $16.7 billion in cash and marketable securities on its balance sheet.

Looking toward Q3, management projected revenue of $33.5 billion — substantially above the $24.29 billion consensus forecast at that time — alongside adjusted earnings per share guidance of $19.15.

Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra noted the company “set new records across revenue, gross margin, EPS, and free cash flow” during Q2, with additional records anticipated in Q3.

What’s Driving Wall Street’s Optimism

Mizuho Securities conducted meetings with Micron leadership on May 26 and maintained its Outperform rating, keeping its $800 price objective unchanged. Analyst Vijay Rakesh highlighted that HBM and DRAM demand stems primarily from AI workloads, noting that availability for major customers remains 30% to 50% short of actual requirements.

Mizuho further indicated this supply-demand imbalance could continue beyond 2026, projecting that HBM4 and HBM4e pricing might increase between 70% and 100% during 2027 after a pricing adjustment in Q4 2025.

Micron’s complete HBM production capacity for 2026 has already been fully allocated. The company is currently manufacturing HBM4 products for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform, which supports analyst confidence in sustained pricing strength.

Beyond Mizuho’s assessment, D.A. Davidson launched coverage with a Buy recommendation and $1,500 price target, while Morgan Stanley and KeyBanc have expressed similar positive outlooks. Overall Street sentiment registers as “Strong Buy,” with the average price target of $1,625 suggesting approximately 76% potential appreciation from current trading levels.

Supporting the demand thesis, Micron recently acquired Powerchip’s Tongluo manufacturing facility in Taiwan for $1.8 billion and announced plans for constructing a second site there. Leadership also increased fiscal 2026 capital expenditure guidance to exceed $25 billion.

Not all analysts dismiss potential headwinds. Some warn that incoming production capacity could create pricing pressure on memory products in 2027 and 2028, and Micron fundamentally remains a cyclical enterprise despite AI’s transformative impact on its business model.

Micron currently commands a forward earnings multiple of approximately 8.4x, contrasting with 22x for the S&P 500 and 26x for the Nasdaq 100.

The Cardano Foundation has canceled its 2026 annual conference after its governance community shot down a revised proposal seeking to fund the event with treasury tokens.

“Governance requires not only participation, but also a commitment to accept collective decisions. The Cardano community has spoken and we respect the outcome,” the foundation posted to X on Saturday after voting closed on Friday.

The proposal sought to use 7.8 million Cardano (ADA) tokens worth $1.84 million to fund the event. 65.2% of votes were cast in favor of the proposal, which was just short of the 66.67% threshold needed to pass. 

Source: Cardano Foundation

The conference, called the Cardano Summit, was scheduled to take place on Oct. 5 and 6 in Singapore.

135 voters were in favor of proceeding with the event, while 61 were against and 24 abstained.

The vote follows a months-long dispute between Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and many so-called Delegated Representatives (DReps), who have pushed for tighter spending from the foundation’s treasury.

The DReps, which are people or organizations that ADA holders can delegate their voting power to, voted against a similar proposal on May 9 that sought to use about 14 million ADA tokens to fund the event.

Only 10% of DReps voted in favor of that proposal, prompting the foundation to lower the requested funding amount under a new proposal.

Despite the cancellation, EMURGO, the investment and commercial arm behind the Cardano blockchain, passed a proposal to represent the Cardano ecosystem at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore on Oct. 7 and 8.

Related: Cardano can now be used to pay at 137 Spar stores across Switzerland 

Hoskinson is gauging interest in the possibility of scaling up the booth at TOKEN2049 and hosting an “embedded MiniSummit.”

The Cardano token has a market capitalization of $8.8 billion, but the network has less than $129 million in total value locked on the protocol, ranking 28th among blockchains.

The Cardano network has made $356,400 in network fees so far in 2026, a fraction of the $8.35 million it recorded in 2022.

Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies? 

Key Takeaways

• Brent crude surged more than 3% to approximately $94 per barrel following weekend military confrontations between the U.S. and Iran
• WTI crude futures advanced roughly 3.5% to $90.40 per barrel, rebounding from steep weekly declines
• American forces targeted Iranian military infrastructure; Tehran retaliated with strikes on a U.S.-operated air facility
• Diplomatic efforts toward a ceasefire continue, but substantial obstacles persist after nearly two months of negotiations
• Approximately 20% of worldwide oil transport flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which faces ongoing disruptions

Crude oil markets rallied more than 3% on Monday following a weekend of military escalation between Washington and Tehran, intensifying worries about potential supply interruptions across the Middle East.

Brent crude futures advanced to approximately $93.95 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate climbed to around $90.40. The gains came after both benchmarks had tumbled roughly 10% during the prior week — marking their steepest weekly declines in recent periods.

Last week’s downturn emerged following indications that American and Iranian officials were advancing toward a ceasefire arrangement. However, optimism evaporated rapidly after the weekend’s military actions.

Weekend Military Escalation Details

U.S. military officials confirmed operations targeting Iranian air defense systems, unmanned aerial vehicle command centers, and supporting infrastructure. The strikes followed Tehran’s alleged downing of an American drone operating in international airspace.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched retaliatory strikes against an airfield utilized by American military personnel. Kuwait’s defense systems intercepted additional missile and drone attacks, underscoring the region’s volatility.

Israel intensified regional tensions by directing military forces to advance further into southern Lebanon, expanding operations against Hezbollah. The maneuver sparked concerns about potential broader regional warfare.

Critical Chokepoint Under Pressure

The Strait of Hormuz represents the planet’s most vital oil transit corridor. Roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies move through this narrow waterway.

Maritime traffic through the strait continues operating below typical volumes. Market analysts note that current prices haven’t fully accounted for a complete or prolonged shutdown, suggesting significant upward potential if conditions deteriorate.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, noted that worldwide petroleum reserves are declining rapidly and emphasized that substantial upside price risks remain should disruptions persist through the Strait of Hormuz.

Diplomatic Discussions Advance Slowly

Negotiators are working on a memorandum of understanding designed to resolve blockages in the strait while establishing a 60-day period for addressing disputes concerning Iran’s nuclear activities and sanctions alleviation.

President Trump commented Saturday that the United States was “close to a very good deal” with Iran. He acknowledged, however, that resumed hostilities remained possible should negotiations collapse.

Amarpreet Singh, commodities analyst at Barclays, observed that markets are anxious to incorporate a resolution into pricing, but an agreement remains elusive following seven weeks of diplomatic engagement.

Major obstacles include regional security frameworks, sanctions removal timelines, and maritime passage rights through the strategic waterway.

Crude prices have experienced dramatic volatility in recent weeks as market participants responded to evolving developments on both military and diplomatic fronts.

During early Monday sessions, both Brent and WTI maintained their upward momentum, though experts warned that market direction could shift rapidly based on whether negotiations progress or military operations intensify.

A $1.26 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) made last week was likely a whale making a quick exit on a directional trade, says Greg Cipolaro, the head of research at financial services company NYDIG.

On Tuesday, an unknown trader sold 29.2 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT on a dark pool, a private trading platform that institutions use to discreetly make large trades outside public markets, sparking speculation about who made the trade and why.

Cipolaro said in a research note on Friday that several indicators were “consistent with a large directional holder exiting a concentrated position rather than a contemporaneous basis-trade unwind.”

He added that the seller accepting the sale at $1.01 below the market price of $44.17, forgoing $29.5 million in exchange for immediate execution, and using a private trading platform, pointed to such a large directional holder exiting.

Large transactions can move markets and affect overall sentiment. However, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC) slid 2.8% over the day after the trade. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said at the time the market absorbed the sale well despite the significant block sale.

“The key unanswered question is whether the seller was responding to idiosyncratic constraints or expressing a broader investment view,” Cipolaro said.

“While the transaction details themselves cannot answer that question, they do, however, demonstrate that at least one sophisticated holder was willing to pay approximately $29.5 million to eliminate a $1.26 billion bitcoin-linked position immediately.”

US-listed Bitcoin ETFs have now recorded 11 straight trading days of net outflows, with a $333.6 million outflow on the same day as the massive IBIT trade, according to Farside Investors data. 

More than $2.9 billion has now flowed out from the ETFs since May 14, the last recorded net inflow across multiple funds.

U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs have recorded 11 straight trading days of net outflows. Source: Farside Investors

Related: Bitcoin falls out of the global top 10 assets as market cap dips below $1.5T 

Meanwhile, sentiment has also been volatile. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall crypto market sentiment, returned a score of 29 out of 100 on Monday, indicating “fear” in the market. It also posted an average rating of “fear” for May.

Cipolaro said the methods used by the whale entity to sell show urgency, but the motive remains unclear. He speculates that it could have been a forced sale driven by investor redemptions and balance-sheet constraints or an attempt to reduce the risk of exiting over multiple sessions.

“Public data cannot distinguish conclusively between these explanations,” he said. 

“However, the weakening technical backdrop, ongoing ETF outflows, and willingness to pay a substantial execution premium for immediacy are more consistent with discretionary liquidation rather than investor redemptions or a portfolio rebalance.”

Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?

A security researcher who goes by 0xflorent worked with the team behind a 2016 Ethereum (ETH) ICO contract to unlock about $2 million in ether that had sat trapped for nine years, in a coordinated whitehat recovery that exploited an integer-overflow flaw the original developers had never patched.

The contract belongs to HongCoin, a 2016 token sale that fell short of its funding goal and was supposed to auto-refund investors’ ether but failed to do so because of a bug in the refund function.

0xflorent’s path unfroze 1,003.62 ETH, with 48 original investors now eligible to claim. Two have done so, retrieving a combined 96.5 ETH worth roughly $193,000, he said in an X thread Sunday.

The contract’s refund logic rejected any holder whose token balance exceeded a global counter that years of partial refunds had dragged down to 356, capping further refunds at 3.56 ETH.

0xflorent found that an admin function on the contract, restricted to HongCoin’s multisig wallet, lacked the integer-overflow protections later built into the Solidity programming language. Calling it with a specific input value reset a holder’s balance to one, allowing the refund check to pass and releasing the funds.

The recovery was not a unilateral exploit, however. Because the admin function required HongCoin’s multisig to execute, 0xflorent emailed the team, validated the unlock sequence on a test fork of Ethereum’s mainnet, and the team itself signed the unlock transactions.

It signed 41 transactions, one per blocked holder, freeing the roughly 1,000 ETH that was truly stuck. Another seven holders held small enough balances to refund directly without the workaround.

It is the second such recovery 0xflorent has publicized in eight days.

On May 24, he said he had returned 19.329 ETH, worth about $40,590, to its original owners, including 5.141 ETH from a failed January 2018 ICO and 14.190 ETH from seven expired atomic swaps in a Liquality Wallet user account that had become inaccessible after the wallet shut down in 2024.

The recovery lands during a heavy stretch of DeFi exploits, with April alone seeing hundreds of millions of dollars drained across protocols, headlined by a roughly $293 million hit on Kelp DAO.