Notional volume on prediction markets climbed sharply in the second quarter of 2026 and reached $113.8 billion, up 48.7% from the previous quarter.

CoinGecko found that the momentum accelerated in June, when monthly notional volume surged to a record $50.7 billion, which represented a 92% increase from the average monthly volume of $27.5 billion posted over the prior five months.

Sports Drive June Surge

In its latest report, CoinGecko attributed the spike to a packed calendar of major sporting events beginning in late May, such as the UEFA Champions League Final, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, FIFA World Cup, and Wimbledon. The sports-driven activity was particularly evident on Polymarket, where sports-related contracts accounted for 81% of trading volume in June, as opposed to 40% in January.

Despite this increase in sports trading, Polymarket’s market share declined quarter-over-quarter from 35.8% to 30.2%. On the other hand, Kalshi has managed to expand its lead after increasing its share from 42.4% in the first quarter to almost 58.9% in the second.

Meanwhile, Rothera, the Robinhood/Susquehanna International Group joint venture launched in May, quickly climbed to fourth place in June with $2.1 billion in notional volume.

Wall Street and Big Tech Into the Race

Prediction markets gained momentum. Last month, Cboe Global Markets launched Cboe Predicts, its new prediction markets platform featuring securities-based binary option contracts tied to the Mini-S&P 500 Index. The contracts, trading under the symbols XSPBW and XSPBX, are already available through Interactive Brokers, while Charles Schwab is expected to add access in the coming months.

Cboe also said more brokerage firms are likely to support the products over time. The contracts allow traders to take a “yes” or “no” position on whether the Mini-S&P 500 Index will settle at or above a specified level at expiration.

Additionally, the New York Times reported that Meta is developing a standalone prediction markets app called Arena, where users would predict real-world outcomes using points instead of real money. According to the report, the experimental project is a top priority for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and could eventually expand to real-money betting. The initiative follows Meta’s earlier Forecast app, a points-based prediction platform launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic before being discontinued in 2022.

The post Sports Events Push Prediction Market Trading to Record Highs in June appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Ethereum remains trapped below a major higher-timeframe resistance cluster despite recovering strongly from its June lows. The recent rejection near local highs has pushed the asset back into an important support zone, while the price is approaching a technical decision point that should determine whether buyers can extend the recovery toward higher resistance or whether another corrective leg unfolds.

ETH Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, ETH continues to trade below the descending 100-day and 200-day moving averages, confirming that the broader market structure remains bearish despite the recent rebound.

The asset recently failed to sustain a move above the short-term resistance around $1.9K and has now pulled back into the $1.75K-$1.85K demand zone. This region has acted as support throughout the current recovery and now represents the first line of defense for buyers.

As long as Ethereum holds above this area, another push toward the major decision zone between $2K and $2.15K remains possible. This region also aligns with the descending long-term trendline and the declining 100-day moving average, making it the most significant resistance cluster on the daily chart.

A successful breakout above this confluence would mark an important structural improvement, while rejection would likely shift attention back toward the long-term demand zone around $1.45K-$1.55K.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows Ethereum pulling back after failing to extend above the recent swing high near $1.95K. The correction has pushed it back to the short-term demand zone around $1.76K-$1.84K, which has repeatedly attracted buyers over the past week.

This area now serves as the immediate support needed to preserve the sequence of higher lows established since early July. Holding above it could allow another attempt toward the upper boundary of the current recovery structure and eventually the daily resistance around $2K.

However, losing this demand zone would likely expose the lower support levels around $1.7K before buyers attempt another recovery.

Sentiment Analysis

The liquidation heatmap highlights a large concentration of short liquidations positioned above the current market, with the most notable liquidity cluster sitting around the $1.95K-$2K region.

Importantly, this liquidity pool aligns closely with the key technical resistance visible on both the daily and 4-hour charts. The cluster sits directly beneath the higher-timeframe supply zone around $2K-$2.15K and near the descending trendline, creating a strong confluence between derivatives positioning and technical resistance.

This alignment increases the probability that Ethereum could first stage an upside liquidity grab into the $1.95K-$2K area to sweep leveraged short positions before facing renewed selling pressure from the overhead supply zone. A decisive breakout through both the liquidity cluster and the daily resistance would invalidate this scenario and instead strengthen the case for a broader bullish reversal.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: $2K Dream Remains on the Table as ETH Defends Key Levels appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Meta is reportedly in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times.

The arrangement would open a new business line for Meta while easing Anthropic’s desperate hunt for compute.

Inside the Reported Meta and Anthropic Compute Deal

Computing power, or compute, refers to the data center capacity used to train and run artificial intelligence models. The Anthropic proposal, first announced in June, would let the startup rent Meta’s excess infrastructure rather than build its own facilities.

According to the NTY, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly installments over the two-year period, with an early-exit clause available to either party.

The scale still looks modest by industry standards. The proposal runs about a third of the deal Anthropic signed with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in May.

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Under that agreement, the AI firm pays roughly $1.25 billion monthly, or $45 billion over three years, for computing power. Similar early-exit provisions reportedly applied to that larger contract as well.

The talks remain in early stages and may still collapse before closing. Both Anthropic and Meta declined to comment on the reported negotiations.

The context explains the urgency. Leading AI companies are racing to secure compute, while Meta, Google, and Microsoft pour hundreds of billions into new data centers worldwide.

That construction boom has unsettled Wall Street. Investors increasingly question whether such extraordinary levels of spending can ever be justified by real returns.

“Anthropic needs a lot of compute, and Meta has a lot of compute. Anthropic has really good models. Meta, until very recently, didn’t have very good models, and now they have, you know, I would say an A-minus to B-tier frontier model,” MTS’s Theo Jaffee said.

Why Would Meta Rent Compute to a Direct Rival

For Meta, a potential deal would carry unusual weight. It could create fresh revenue and ease pressure from shareholders skeptical of the company’s aggressive infrastructure budget.

Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta will spend as much as $145 billion this year, most of it on AI. That figure more than doubles the $72 billion spent the previous year.

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Doubts about Meta’s own models add another layer. The company has admitted it might build more data centers than its AI products currently require.

Selling that surplus offers an obvious fix. Zuckerberg hinted on a May investor call that outside firms regularly ask to buy compute at a premium.

He said Meta had resisted so far because it still expected to use the capacity internally. Overbuilding, however, would make leasing the surplus a far more logical option.

The growing scarcity of compute has pushed direct rivals toward cooperation. Anthropic, valued near $1.2 trillion and preparing to go public, has seen demand surge since launching Claude Code.

Meta itself already rents capacity elsewhere, including a $21 billion CoreWeave deal and a $27 billion agreement with Nebius. Rising compute prices now let the company consider renting its own centers out to others.

The post Meta Reportedly In Talks With Anthropic Over a $10 Billion AI Deal appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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France’s gambling regulator has ordered internet providers to block access to Polymarket. The order comes days before Les Bleus face England in the FIFA World Cup 2026 bronze medal match.

The National Gambling Authority, known as the ANJ, has labeled the platform an illegal betting operation. It also flagged manipulation risks just as the prediction interest around the fixture builds.

France’s Regulator Moves to Cut Off Access

The ANJ’s president instructed French internet providers to block Polymarket entirely, calling the platform’s offering illegal. The regulator said Polymarket attracts a particularly large audience while promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering.

The agency also flagged manipulation risks tied to some Polymarket wagers. That adds pressure on a platform facing scrutiny across Europe’s Polymarket bans. The Netherlands already threatened steep fines earlier this year.

A Pattern Stretching Well Beyond France

France now joins a lengthening list of regulators pushing back. Kentucky’s attorney general filed a prediction market lawsuit against Polymarket and Kalshi this year. Australia tightened gambling ad restrictions around live sports broadcasts.

Polymarket, meanwhile, has kept courting friendlier jurisdictions. The company is reportedly pursuing a Japan approval push, targeting Tokyo by 2030.

The split shows a clash between wary regulators and Polymarket. Regulators worry about consumer harm. Polymarket insists its contracts serve legitimate price discovery, not gambling.

Bettors Still Favor Les Bleus

None of that scrutiny has cooled interest in today’s third-place playoff. That mirrors a broader surge in World Cup prediction markets throughout the tournament. Polymarket’s live market prices France at 67 cents to beat England. That implies roughly a 67% chance for Les Bleus.

The French ban does not reach bettors abroad. But it signals regulators are no longer willing to wait for prediction markets to police themselves. Whether Polymarket adapts its French offering or simply walks away remains an open question heading into kickoff.

The post France Blocks Polymarket Ahead of World Cup 3rd Place Match appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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It’s easy to get lost in the sea of news coming daily in the cryptocurrency world, from bitcoin price volatility to regulatory battles in Washington and everything in between. Sometimes, interesting stories are just passed by.

Here are four of the most intriguing news developments that went live in the past week and you might have missed.

North Korea-Linked Dev at MetaMask

According to an internal script obtained by Drop Site News, Consensys, the entity behind the popular Ethereum wallet MetaMask, confirmed that a consultant introduced through a third-party provider was later found to have links to North Korea. The reason for concern is that the country’s authorities have long employed hackers to infiltrate popular cryptocurrency projects, find or insert vulnerabilities, and later exploit them for their own benefit.

The developer in question worked with MetaMask for about a month and contributed to code related to the wallet before their access was terminated. Consensys said it temporarily suspended product releases to investigate the incident but found no evidence that assets or data were stolen, malicious code was deployed, or users were affected.

Knaken Goes Bankrupt

A Rotterdam court declared the local crypto exchange Knaken bankrupt after prosecutors alleged that approximately €7 million ($7.6 million) in customer funds were missing and could not be accounted for. Users were unable to access the platform for approximately a month since it halted operations in June.

The court concluded that Knaken did not have enough assets to repay all customers. This collapse comes at an intriguing time as the European Union just implemented its MiCA requirements, and it raises questions about how effectively the new regulatory framework can protect customers from platforms operating without the required authorization.

Injective Submits TA-1

The team behind the popular blockchain project said they submitted Form TA-1 to the US SEC to register as a transfer agent. If approved, Injective could maintain official ownership records for tokenized securities directly on-chain.

Transfer agents traditionally record ownership changes, process transfers, and help issuers maintain shareholder records. However, Injective’s new approach aims to represent a practical attempt to connect public blockchains with regulated US capital markets rather than simply using unregulated stock representations.

Injective has filed its transfer agent registration with the SEC, marking a major step towards becoming a leading blockchain with a regulated pathway to issue securities onchain.

This advances RWA market infrastructure in the New Internet Economy, right here in the US. pic.twitter.com/u97CMk1rBT

— Injective (@injective) July 16, 2026

Robinhood Chain Gains ETH Traction

Robinhood Chain’s first couple of weeks of existence have been quite overwhelming, especially for Ethereum. Reports emerged a few days ago that over $70 million worth of the altcoin was already bridged to the newly launched chain.

These significant early inflows suggest impressive interest in the new ecosystem, but the real test will be whether the liquidity remains after this initial hype period and develops into sustained trading and application usage. Is this indeed demand for tokenized assets rather than short-term speculative activity?

The post Here Are Four Important Crypto Stories You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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