Tether has frozen USDT balances in 131 TRON wallets linked to ISIS-K after U.S. sanctions officials added more than 100 crypto identifiers tied to the group. 

The move places stablecoin issuer controls at the center of a new terrorism-financing action involving TRON and Monero addresses.

Chainalysis said the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its ISIS-K designation on July 1. The update added 134 crypto wallet identifiers, including 131 TRON addresses and three Monero addresses. 

“Tether has frozen the balances on all 131 TRON addresses,” said Chainalysis.

The official OFAC update lists the wallets under ISIL Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K. The group is the Islamic State’s Afghanistan and Pakistan branch. OFAC had already designated ISIS-K as a terrorist group before adding the new crypto wallet identifiers.

Chainalysis tracks Tether flows across TRON wallets

Chainalysis said the 131 TRON addresses had received more than $1.4 million since 2023. The same wallets sent out more than $880,000 over that period. The blockchain analytics firm said several listed wallets had exposure to mainstream services and also sent funds to Syria-based crypto exchangers.

The report said ISIS-K’s media branch, al-Azaim Media Foundation, has used websites and messaging platforms to seek crypto donations. Chainalysis said it had collected past donation addresses on TRON, Monero, and Bitcoin. The firm also noted that earlier public terrorism-financing campaigns often used smaller donations, rather than a few large transfers.

Stablecoin freeze role keeps growing

The latest freeze follows a wider rise in issuer-level enforcement around USDT. As previously reported, Tether’s T3 Financial Crime Unit passed $450 million in frozen suspected illicit assets since its 2024 launch. The unit is backed by Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs, and focuses on USDT activity on the TRON network.

Moreover, Tether froze more than $514 million across 370 addresses during one 30-day period earlier this year. Most of the frozen funds were on TRON. BlockSec data cited in that report showed Tether blacklisted 4,163 addresses in 2025, freezing $1.26 billion across Ethereum and TRON.

Sanctions pressure reaches compliance teams

The ISIS-K action also comes after other terrorism-linked wallet freezes this year. Victims with U.S. terrorism judgments asked a New York court to order Tether to turn over 344,149,759 USDT held in two OFAC-blocked TRON wallets linked to Iran’s IRGC. That case centers on whether frozen stablecoins can be transferred to judgment creditors.

Chainalysis said the July 1 actions require virtual asset service providers and financial institutions to update sanctions screening and transaction monitoring. The firm also said it labeled the relevant addresses in its products. The step gives compliance teams a way to detect exposure to the newly listed ISIS-K wallets and related networks.

K Wave Media has sold its remaining Bitcoin holdings, ending a short-lived treasury push that once aimed to turn the Nasdaq-listed Korean media company into a major corporate BTC holder. 

The sale came less than a year after the company said it had access to up to $1 billion in financing for its Bitcoin strategy.

K Wave sells 88 BTC to repay debt

In a June 30 SEC filing, K Wave said it liquidated 88 Bitcoin held in its treasury and used the proceeds to repay $6 million of Initial Notes. The transaction was tied to an April 29 amendment to its securities purchase agreement with Anson Funds.

Bitcoin ended June at $58,526, sliding 20.5% over the month and recording its weakest monthly performance since June 2022. The retreat left the flagship cryptocurrency trading below its 200-week moving average near $62,000, but still above a key on-chain valuation metric known as realized price (around $52,000), a configuration that some analysts interpret as a warning that the market may not have reached a full bear-market bottom.

Crypto analyst PlanB, creator of the stock-to-flow pricing model, argued that this price positioning matters because previous bear-market troughs occurred below realized price. In a post shared this week, PlanB said the setup suggests Bitcoin’s downside could continue, potentially revisiting the realized-price area and beyond.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin’s June close at $58,526 placed it below the 200-week moving average (about $62,000) while remaining above realized price (~$52,000).
• PlanB says earlier bear-market bottoms formed below realized price, implying the market may still be searching for its bottom.
• Analysts at Bitrue Research Institute and Bitget Wallet both described the June-to-$60,000 region as a developing bottom zone, but with risk of further drawdowns.
• Benjamin Cowen suggested Bitcoin may see a cycle-bottom window tied to the US midterm election year, historically aligning with accumulation phases in 2018 and 2022.

Why June’s “in-between” level is drawing attention

PlanB’s argument centers on what he views as the relationship between price and realized price during bear markets. According to the stock-to-flow analyst, Bitcoin’s historical bear-market bottoms have not simply arrived after price fell below major moving averages; they also tended to appear after price moved to levels beneath realized price.

In earlier posts, PlanB highlighted that if Bitcoin breaks down below realized price, it would align with that prior pattern. He referenced the possibility that Bitcoin could fall to $52,000, which would correspond closely with realized price.

From an investor perspective, this distinction can be important because realized price is often used as an on-chain proxy for the average cost basis of coins in circulation. When market price trades above realized price, the market may still be able to bounce; when it slips below, the distribution of holders’ costs versus current valuations tends to become more unfavorable, which can prolong bearish conditions.

Realized price explained—and what it signals

Realized price is calculated by valuing all Bitcoin outputs (typically discussed in terms of unspent transaction output or UTXO cohorts) at the price when each coin last moved on-chain. The result is an aggregate measure of the average acquisition price for the existing supply.

Because realized price reflects holder cost basis, it is frequently used to identify potential support areas during downtrends. The idea is that when price is substantially below realized levels, the market is effectively pricing Bitcoin below what many holders paid when they last moved coins, which can coincide with capitulation phases and supply shakeouts.

Against that backdrop, June’s outcome—still above realized price but no longer above the 200-week moving average—has led analysts to frame the current range as transitional rather than conclusive.

Analysts see a bottom developing, but not confirmed

Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s June close carried a signal consistent with prior cycles. He said the month’s finish above realized price but below the 200-week moving average “signals the bear bottom is still ahead per prior cycles.”

Adziima added that he is watching for a potential capitulation period in late 2026 before a subsequent move higher—while also arguing that the decline could be shallower this cycle due to the role of institutions.

Meanwhile, Lacie Zhang, research analyst at Bitget Wallet, characterized the current consolidation around $60,000 as an area that may be approaching a bottom. She told Cointelegraph that if further downside occurs, the market could build “strong historical and technical support” around $55,000.

Taken together, these views reflect a common tension in market bottoms: technical indicators and on-chain benchmarks can both suggest stabilization, yet neither can confirm capitulation has fully played out. In this case, the “middle” positioning—between the 200-week moving average and realized price—is leaving room for additional volatility before a more durable floor forms.

Cycle-bottom theory tied to US midterms

Beyond on-chain valuation levels, some analysts are also looking at macro calendar effects. ITC Crypto founder Benjamin Cowen speculated that Bitcoin may see a cycle bottom this year, pointing to the fact that it is a US midterm election year.

Cowen argued that the second half of midterm years often marks an accumulation zone and a market cycle bottom, noting that such timing previously coincided with bear market bottoms in 2018 and 2022. The next US midterms are scheduled for Nov. 3, with all House of Representatives seats and about a third of Senate seats up for election.

While this framing is not the same as a realized-price breakdown model, it can influence how traders time risk—particularly when they treat the calendar as a factor that shapes liquidity and positioning. Investors watching this thesis would likely focus on whether Bitcoin’s downtrend stabilizes into accumulation rather than continuing to grind toward or below realized price.

For now, the key takeaway from all perspectives is that June’s close did not neatly resolve the debate. Bitcoin is weak enough to be below its long-term trend proxy, but it has not yet fallen to the on-chain valuation zone that PlanB says has marked prior trough formation.

Traders and long-term holders will likely watch whether Bitcoin can hold above realized price around $52,000 and whether weakness extends toward $55,000 support. The market’s next step—whether it stabilizes into accumulation or breaks below realized valuation—may determine if this is merely consolidation or the start of a more complete bear-market bottom.

Solana Foundation has introduced Solana Governance Proposals, a new onchain process for validators to move major network questions into stake-weighted votes. 

The system gives validators a formal route to submit, support, and decide governance items that may shape Solana’s future protocol direction.

Meanwhile, the Solana Governance Proposals repo says SGPs are documents proposed by Solana validators for stake-weighted, onchain voting through the svmgov program. The process is for high-level questions that ask whether the network should move in a certain direction, rather than detailed technical changes. This keeps SGPs focused on broad network direction only.

A validator vote account needs at least 100,000 SOL staked to take an SGP onchain. The proposal then needs support from at least 15% of active stake before it can enter voting. The Solana Governance documentation says validators create proposals, other validators support them, and voting weight is proven through Merkle proofs against an onchain stake snapshot.

The process separates signals from code

The SGP process sits beside Solana Improvement Documents, which cover detailed protocol design. In simple terms, SGPs ask whether Solana should pursue a direction, while SIMDs explain how a change would be built. The repo says, “A ‘yes’ on an SGP is a mandate to proceed.”

The lifecycle moves from idea to draft, support, voting, acceptance, and activation. Once a proposal reaches the 15% support threshold, it enters a fixed 11-epoch process. That includes seven epochs for discussion, one epoch for a Node Consensus Network snapshot, and three epochs for voting.

There is no quorum rule. A proposal passes only if “For” votes reach at least 66.67% of “For” plus “Against” stake. The repo also says SGPs are not mandatory for every technical change. If validators do not reach support, developers can continue through normal SIMD review.

Governance arrives as upgrades continue

The launch comes as Solana continues to test large infrastructure changes. As previously reported, the Alpenglow upgrade entered community validator testing in May. Alpenglow aims to cut confirmation times to about 150 milliseconds and remove Proof of History and onchain vote transactions from Solana’s core process.

The new SGP route could give validators a clearer way to request network-wide direction before developers prepare technical work. The GitHub repo uses Alpenglow as an example of a proposal that could have first taken a directional vote before later SIMDs defined the build path. That example shows how Solana may use SGPs when validator input is needed before engineering details are complete.

Recent Solana activity adds context

Solana’s validator set has also been tied to other recent network tools. As crypto.news reported, DoubleZero launched Edge in April with 379 validators publishing shreds and about 43% of Solana’s total stake covered at launch. The project aims to deliver Solana block data through private fiber paths.

Solana has also seen renewed market activity around network use. Crypto.news reported that Solana’s tokenized stock activity helped drive an 18% weekly SOL rebound in late June. Earlier, crypto.news reported that Galaxy Digital proposed a voting model for Solana inflation, showing that validator voting design has already been part of the network’s policy debate.

Türkiye-based digital asset platform Paribu has launched DeFi access inside its main app, adding DEX trading, perpetual contracts through Hyperliquid, and Polymarket-linked option markets. 

The company also opened a waitlist for stock trading as it works to combine crypto, DeFi, yield products, and equities in one app.

Paribu said it is the first regulated exchange to offer both Hyperliquid perpetuals and Polymarket option markets through a centralized exchange interface. Users can access the DeFi section with their existing balance, without a separate wallet app, seed phrase, or new account. The company said each DeFi position remains self-custodial, while trades settle onchain through linked protocols.

Bitcoin rebounded on Wednesday after tagging a 21-month low, with BTC rising as high as $60,200 and gaining roughly 2.7% over the past 24 hours from earlier losses. The bounce lifted major alternatives as well: Ether (ETH) rose about 3%, while Solana (SOL) climbed roughly 4.85%.

Still, the recovery is happening against a backdrop of persistent caution. According to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index maintained by Alternative.me, sentiment is around 11 out of 100—an “Extreme Fear” reading—suggesting many market participants remain nervous about what comes next. Even with today’s uptick, Bitcoin is still down about a third since the start of the year.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin’s intraday bounce followed a fresh 21-month low near $57,737, but broader confidence remains weak with the Fear & Greed Index in “Extreme Fear.”
• US spot Bitcoin ETF flows have been net negative recently, including a reported $4.5 billion outflow in June—the largest since the funds launched—indicating cautious institutional positioning.
• On-chain data points to strength from long-term holders, with an estimated addition of roughly 270,000 BTC over the past two weeks.
• Funding rates have stayed positive for three straight days, implying leverage is still leaning toward long exposure even as price remains under pressure.
• Liquidation risk appears heaviest in the $57,000 to $60,500 band, meaning sustained moves beyond roughly $61,000 or below $56,000 could accelerate volatility.

Fear remains elevated even after the rebound

Market pricing today reflects a tug-of-war between dip-buyers and the fear of further downside. The latest sentiment readings underline that many traders are still operating defensively, despite Bitcoin’s recovery attempt from the yearly low area.

This matters because fear can shape how quickly the market absorbs negative news. When sentiment is extremely negative, rebounds often face selling pressure not just from those who missed the decline, but from participants who are using rallies to reduce risk. The result is a market that can rally sharply—then struggle to build follow-through.

ETF outflows versus long-term accumulation

One of the clearest contrasts in the data is between institutional product flows and on-chain holder behavior.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen more money leaving than entering in recent weeks, including a reported total outflow of $4.5 billion in June, described as the largest since the funds began launching. That pattern typically suggests that, at least for now, some traditional investors are not convinced enough to add exposure during a drawdown.

At the same time, on-chain indicators show long-term holders accumulating. According to the on-chain data referenced in the analysis, long-term wallets added about 270,000 BTC over the past two weeks. In crypto market interpretation, that kind of accumulation is often read as evidence that bigger investors view the recent decline as an opportunity rather than a prompt to sell.

The tension between these two signals—net outflows from ETFs versus accumulation by long-term holders—helps explain why the market can bounce without fully transitioning into a sustained uptrend. Flows may stay cautious while deeper capital continues to build positions more quietly.

Funding rates stay positive as leverage crowds in

Another point to watch is leverage. The analysis highlights that Bitcoin’s funding rate has remained positive for three consecutive days. In practical terms, that means the prevailing derivatives positioning has continued to lean toward bets that prices will rise.

Positive funding while spot prices are weak can be a volatility risk. When one side of the market becomes overcrowded with leveraged longs, a further downside move can force liquidations that amplify the drop—especially if price breaks key support levels. Conversely, if the market stabilizes or turns upward while longs remain funded, the same mechanism can also support rallies through short-covering and stop-trigger effects.

As of now, the key point is that leverage appears active, but price confirmation has not yet clearly followed through in a way that would suggest the market has fully flipped from fear to conviction.

Liquidations cluster around current trading levels

Where liquidation risk sits is often central to understanding how quickly price can move during stressful periods. Using a three-exchange, three-day liquidation heatmap (as cited in the analysis, sourced from Hyblock), the highest concentration of leveraged positioning appears roughly between $57,000 and $60,500. That zone closely overlaps with the trading range Bitcoin has held since late June.

Above that area, the density of liquidation risk thins out noticeably between approximately $61,000 to $62,000. Below, a similar reduction appears around $55,000 to $56,000. This distribution suggests that a move breaking out of the present range could encounter less immediate “magnet” pressure from nearby liquidations—while a move that stays within or slightly beyond the clustered zone could lead to sharper, more abrupt price reactions.

In the near term, the analysis argues that most forced unwind potential sits close to current prices rather than far away. That is why decisive movement beyond roughly $61,000 to the upside—or below about $56,000 on the downside—could create room for accelerated liquidation-driven volatility.

Looking ahead to the next 24 hours, the outlook described here is neutral. A meaningful change would likely require stronger evidence that leveraged positioning is both rising and aligning with a rising spot price—an interaction the analysis notes has not clearly emerged yet.

Traders and investors should monitor whether ETF flow weakness persists alongside continued long-term accumulation, and whether derivatives conditions evolve—particularly funding rate direction and liquidation clustering—as these factors together will determine whether this bounce becomes a trend or fades back into range-bound action.

Venice AI, the privacy-focused AI platform founded by Erik Voorhees, has raised $65 million in Series A funding at a $1 billion valuation, bringing the company to “unicorn” status. The round—led by Dragonfly and backed by Coinbase Ventures, F-Prime, North Island Ventures, Morgan Creek and others—was announced on Wednesday, and represents Venice AI’s first outside capital raise since it launched in 2024.

The funding arrives as privacy concerns around mainstream AI services are drawing renewed attention. Earlier this month, Anthropic cut off foreign access to two of its latest models, and in the broader public debate over AI data handling, a class-action lawsuit recently accused OpenAI of sharing ChatGPT data with third parties. Against that backdrop, Venice AI positions itself as a layer between users and model providers, designed to reduce what third parties can see about user activity.

Key takeaways

• Venice AI reached unicorn status after closing a $65 million Series A round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Dragonfly.
• The platform claims 3.5 million users and routes traffic through a proxy that can obscure IP address and user/account/session data from model providers.
• Venice AI says the new capital will fund more of its own infrastructure, including owning GPUs via data center expansion rather than relying entirely on rental capacity.
• The announcement lands amid heightened scrutiny of AI data privacy, including legal claims involving tracking technologies and alleged sharing of user information.

Unicorn funding for a privacy-first AI delivery layer

Venice AI’s Series A funding was announced by the company in a blog post published Wednesday, with Erik Voorhees describing the company’s mission in constitutional terms in a separate X post. Voorhees said the funding will be used to uphold the First and Fourth Amendments “as they relate to mankind’s interaction with AI.” In the U.S. legal framework, the First Amendment protects core freedoms including speech, while the Fourth Amendment restricts unreasonable government searches and seizures.

While the fundraising headlines focus on valuation and total capital, the more meaningful detail for potential users is the product model: Venice AI’s platform is built to act as an intermediary between a user and over 200 AI models. According to the company, users can choose the level of privacy they want, with different models routed through different privacy protections.

How Venice AI says it protects user data

Venice AI claims it has 3.5 million users. For models associated with OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Google, Venice AI says its proxy obscures users’ IP address as well as account and session data. The company also claims “other models offer higher levels of privacy,” indicating that its approach is not one-size-fits-all and may vary depending on which model is being accessed.

The core premise is that owning (or controlling) the “delivery stack” matters: if the intermediary is the part that can see traffic patterns and data flows, then that component can potentially reduce exposure to outside entities that operate the underlying model endpoints. Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi framed the strategic stakes in those terms, arguing that whoever runs the AI delivery layer can see more about users’ behavior and ultimately influences the conditions under which users get access to powerful systems.

Where the $65 million will go

Voorhees said the Series A funding will be used to continue building Venice AI’s data center infrastructure. A central element of that plan is ownership of the compute resources—specifically, owning GPUs that power the platform—rather than renting them at higher costs.

Beyond infrastructure, Voorhees said remaining capital will support growth initiatives including expanding the customer base, entering new markets, hiring talent, and acquiring what he described as “additive businesses.” The acquisition language suggests Venice AI may be looking to broaden capabilities around its platform, though no specific targets were named in the materials provided.

Privacy scrutiny pushes privacy-focused AI into focus

Venice AI’s funding timing underscores how quickly privacy questions have become a defining topic for AI adoption. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph reported that a user who consults an AI for legal matters could face the risk of chat logs being used against them in court. The broader theme is that AI interactions can generate sensitive records—even if users are not providing personal data intentionally.

In parallel, researchers and industry figures have proposed technical approaches to limit exposure. For example, the Ethereum Foundation’s AI lead Davide Crapis and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed using zero-knowledge proofs and other techniques to help ensure that a user’s interactions with large language models are kept private.

Legal concerns have also intensified. In May, a proposed class action was filed in California federal court accusing OpenAI of disclosing private ChatGPT user data to third parties including Google and Meta. The complaint alleged that Meta Pixel and Google Analytics were embedded into ChatGPT.com, so that when users send queries, duplicate data is allegedly sent to Meta and Google along with advertising cookies and personally identifiable information—information that could then be used for targeted advertising.

These developments highlight a tension for users: modern AI platforms often involve multiple layers of data collection, analytics, and third-party integration, which can be difficult to disentangle from “model inference” itself. Venice AI’s proxy concept is an attempt to restructure that data path by introducing a dedicated intermediary that can obscure certain identifiers from model providers.

The recent industry shifts also reinforce why an intermediary approach is gaining attention. Anthropic’s sudden reduction in foreign access to two of its latest AI models earlier this month served as another reminder that availability and access controls can change quickly—while privacy-focused architectures aim to give users more predictable control over how their data is handled.

What to watch next

With Venice AI scaling its infrastructure and expanding adoption, the key question for investors and users will be how effectively its proxy-based design delivers measurable privacy protections across a wide set of models and real-world integrations. Readers should watch for more transparency around which metadata is obscured under each privacy mode, and whether Venice AI’s compute buildout translates into faster, more consistent performance without sacrificing its stated privacy goals.