Bitcoin slipped below the $70,000 mark as macro risk assets came under pressure amid renewed Middle East tensions, renewing questions about BTC’s sensitivity to broader markets. The September session saw BTC pull back after a brief sprint to around $71,800 earlier in the week, with traders watching how the next move would unfold in an environment where oil, equities, and geopolitical risk remain intertwined.

Analysts described the scene as a palpable test for Bitcoin’s resilience in a risk-off backdrop, with some arguing that a potential regime shift—where BTC behaves less like traditional risk assets—could be forming, even as others warn that volatility and downside risk persist until macro momentum cools.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin briefly fell through the $70,000 level as macro selling pressure hit risk assets, with intraday moves signaling continued volatility.
• Oil hovered near $95 per barrel, and U.S. stock indices opened lower as tensions in the Middle East and related supply concerns weighed on sentiment.
• Market color from QCP Capital framed the price action as a balancing act by policymakers, suggesting authorities are aiming to maintain stability even as geopolitical risks linger.
• Some observers saw early signs of a Bitcoin regime shift, with higher-lows patterns suggesting emerging strength that could challenge traditional risk asset correlations if sustained.
• Technical readings pointed to a contested footing around the 200-week average, with the metric around $68,300 acting as a ambiguous boundary and keeping the near-term outlook nuanced.

Macro backdrop and price dynamics

As U.S. markets opened, BTC traded on the back foot, losing roughly 1.5% on the day and retreating from an early-week push toward the $72,000 area. In traditional markets, the Nasdaq Composite slipped, while gold struggled to push decisively past $4,450. Oil’s oscillation—tending toward $95 per barrel after an initial retreat—reflected ongoing concerns about energy flow. The broader geopolitical backdrop, including tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and regional developments, kept risk sentiment on edge and complicated the path for a clear risk-on/risk-off regime for crypto assets.

Analysts pointed to the interplay between oil prices, sanctions headlines, and macro liquidity as a frequent driver of short-term Bitcoin moves. In such a climate, a single headline can shift correlations as traders reassess leverage, hedging needs, and the role of BTC within diversified portfolios.

Resilience, regime shift, and what it could mean for BTC

Market observers have debated whether Bitcoin’s current action signals a broader shift in how it behaves relative to traditional risk assets. QCP Capital, in its Market Color briefing, argued that President Trump’s handling of geopolitical risk and market stability creates a difficult balancing act: equities sit near key support, inflation pressures continue to influence expectations for rate hikes, and policymakers cannot afford to spur additional volatility. In this view, BTC’s relative steadiness in the face of rising tensions could reflect structural factors such as lower systemic leverage or, more intriguingly, the early stages of a regime shift where BTC does not track risk assets in the same way as before.

Indeed, several traders highlighted constructive technical signs, even as the overall backdrop remains fragile. Michaël van de Poppe pointed to a pattern of higher lows forming since the February crash, suggesting increasing strength if support holds. He cautioned, however, that the picture isn’t “out of the woods” yet, noting that higher lows can still trigger liquidity waves if markets move toward those levels. For a potential bullish runway, he pointed to a target in the high range around $77,000 to $80,000 if Bitcoin sustains the current support area.

On the other side of the spectrum, some analysts warned that weakness could reemerge. A well-known trader warned about a possible Bart Simpson-style pattern playing out on lower timeframes, underscoring the risk that a relief rally could falter without broader macro improvement. Such viewpoints reflect the ongoing tug-of-war between short-term momentum and longer-term structural factors shaping BTC’s trajectory.

Technical reading and near-term implications

The technical picture remains nuanced. The 200-week exponential moving average (EMA), around $68,300, has not delivered a definitive answer on support or resistance, allowing for continued choppiness in the near term. Some market participants suggest that BTC could trade within a broader range until macro catalysts clarify the directional bias, while others argue that strength in the form of higher-lows could precede a renewed upside leg if key levels hold through resistance tests.

In this environment, near-term risk management becomes paramount. Traders are watching whether Bitcoin can maintain the recent higher-lows trajectory, how it behaves around the critical $70,000 level, and how external factors such as oil prices and geopolitical headlines influence liquidity and collateral dynamics in the crypto market.

What readers should watch next

jolts in macro sentiment, particularly around Middle East developments and oil supply expectations, will be crucial in shaping Bitcoin’s path over the coming sessions. A sustained hold above the $70,000 threshold, coupled with a clear push beyond the mid-$70,000s, could renew optimism for the next leg higher. Conversely, renewed downside pressure—especially if macro risk appetite deteriorates—could see BTC retest lower supports in the near term.

Market participants will also be parsing the evolving relationship between Bitcoin and traditional risk assets, as crypto traders increasingly weigh whether a regime shift is underway or if current moves are simply a pause within a longer, volatile cycle.

This article synthesizes market observations and analysis from the period, reflecting published commentary and price action without asserting new claims beyond the cited material.

Bitcoin BTC$70,260.20 is currently trading at around $71,000 having risen by 0.25% since midnight UTC, adding to a broader 24 hour rally of 4%.

Asian hours were favorable to AI tokens, with bittensor (TAO) and FET$0.2422 adding 5.8% and 4.1% apiece. The rise followed comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who claimed that artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a term for AI that matches the cognitive abilities of human beings — has already been achieved.

Still, the main market driver continues to be the war in the Middle East following fresh strikes in Tel Aviv and Lebanon on Tuesday. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said a 48-hour ultimatum over the Strait of Hormuz had been put on hold following “good and productive” peace talks with Iran, although Iranian officials called it “fake news.”

Oil remains at around $100 per barrel while U.S. equities are in the red, with Nasdaq 100 futures and S&P 500 futures both down by around 0.1% since midnight.

The crypto market has remained relatively resilient during the conflict, with bitcoin outperforming gold, a traditional haven asset, since the start of the war.

Derivatives positioning

• Over $550 million in leveraged crypto futures bets have been liquidated in 24 hours, with shorts or bearish bets taking most of the hit.
• Bitcon’s 4%, 24-hour price gain isn’t backed by increased participation in futures, as open interest (OI) in major USD- and USDT-denominated futures has declined to 228,000 BTC from 229,000 BTC.
• A similar pattern is seen in ETH, XRP and SOL markets.
• DOGE, ADA, SUI, AVAX, LINK, and PAXG futures have seen open interest decline by as much as 10%.
• Most tokens have seen aggressive bidding, as evidenced by their positive 24-hour cumulative volume deltas. CRO, XMR and TON stand out with negative CVDs.
• Perpetual funding rates for majors also paint a bullish picture, with values between 5% to 10%.
• On Deribit, BTC and ETH puts continue to show a net bias for protective put options across all time frames. However, they now trade at 5 to 6 volatility point premium to calls versus 8 to 10 early Monday.
• Block flows featured demand for the BTC put condor, a directionally neutral strategy designed to profit from low volatility. In ETH’s case, risk reversals dominated flows.

Token talk

• Several altcoins have outperformed bitcoin since midnight, with HYPE, OP and CRV all gaining around 3% as traders rotated into more speculative assets in anticipation of a wider market breakout.
• The bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index is up by 0.3% on Tuesday, while the altcoin-heavy CoinDesk 80 (CD80) has risen by more than 1%, indicating improving sentiment among the altcoin sector.
• The caveat to the improving sentiment is the state of the DeFi industry. One market watcher described the current landscape as a “really dark” period after Balancer Labs shut down operations and the Resolv stablecoin project was hacked Another criticized the lack of yield opportunities coupled the inherent risk that comes with using DeFi protocols.
• The memecoin sector is another feeling the strain. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) is the worst performing benchmark on Tuesday, rising just 0.1% with several of the index components losing 3%-5%.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs added fresh capital on March 23, reversing earlier weakness and restoring momentum across the category. The rebound followed several weeks of withdrawals in 2026, and it narrowed the funds’ year-to-date deficit. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas linked the trend to persistent demand, even as Bitcoin stayed well below recent highs.

Bitcoin ETF Flows Regain Traction

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $167.2 million in net inflows on Monday, extending a broader recovery in March. Moreover, recent inflows lifted March totals near $2.5 billion after heavy withdrawals earlier in 2026. That reversal left year-to-date flows near flat, and one more strong session could push totals back above zero.

Balchunas said the category showed unusual staying power during six months marked by a sharp Bitcoin decline. Bitcoin lost about 40% over that span, yet the funds kept drawing demand instead of broad liquidation. As a result, the rebound strengthened the argument that these products now attract more durable holders.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust led the group, and it recovered its own year-to-date flow losses. The fund also ranked within the top 2% of U.S. exchange-traded funds by 2026 inflows. Therefore, IBIT continued to separate itself from peers through scale, steady demand, and faster recovery.

Gold Comparison Returns to Focus

Balchunas revived the Bitcoin versus gold debate by comparing current ETF behavior with gold funds trading a decade ago. When gold prices fell sharply around 2013, many gold-backed funds lost substantial assets within months. That episode reflected typical market behavior because large drawdowns often trigger faster selling across commodity products.

By contrast, spot Bitcoin ETFs absorbed the price shock and then regained momentum more quickly. Balchunas used that divergence to argue that Bitcoin fund holders behaved differently from traditional gold fund holders. In turn, the comparison widened discussion about whether Bitcoin now commands stronger long-term conviction than gold.

The debate also expanded because Bitcoin ETFs remain relatively new, while gold funds have operated for many years. Even so, the latest flow pattern suggested that Bitcoin products handled stress better than many expected. That backdrop provided fresh context for current ETF demand and Bitcoin’s competition with gold.

Wall Street Activity Adds Context

Separate corporate filings added context to the ETF rebound because major financial firms announced new Bitcoin plans. Strategy filed documents that would support up to $42 billion in additional Bitcoin purchases over time. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley submitted paperwork tied to its own spot Bitcoin ETF effort.

Those moves indicated that traditional finance still sees commercial value in Bitcoin products despite recent volatility. They also supported the view that institutional participation in the sector continues to broaden. Consequently, ETF flows and corporate filings reinforced the same message about sustained market engagement.

Shaun Edmondson highlighted Monday’s ETF inflows alongside those filings and framed both developments as mutually supportive. His view added momentum to the broader narrative around tightening supply and expanding institutional demand. For now, the latest ETF data and related filings have reset the Bitcoin versus gold discussion.

High Stakes Capital has fully exited a 602,421 HYPE position for $22.9m around $38, extending a broader wave of profit‑taking among Hyperliquid whales near record highs.

A major Hyperliquid (HYPE) whale known as High Stakes Capital has liquidated more than 600,000 HYPE in the past 24 hours, cashing out close to $22.94 million and putting short-term pressure on the flagship Hyperliquid token. ChainCatcher, citing Onchain Lens data, reported that the address sold a total of 602,421 HYPE for approximately 22.938 million USDC, at an average price of $38.08, with the final tranche of 152,421 HYPE netting around $5.82 million and completing the exit. The sell-off comes as HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid’s decentralized perpetuals and derivatives ecosystem, trades just below recent peaks at about $38.86, up 2.72% on the day.

PANews, also quoting Onchain Lens, noted that in the previous 12 hours the same whale had already sold 450,000 HYPE for $17.12 million USDC, at an average price of $38.05, while still holding 152,421 HYPE worth $5.68 million before the final leg. Earlier, Phemex News reported that High Stakes Capital offloaded 300,000 HYPE for $11.45 million at an average of $38.17, while still sitting on 302,421 HYPE valued at about $11.54 million and a cumulative profit exceeding $33.2 million. This staggered exit pattern shows the whale systematically selling into strength around the $38–$39 range rather than dumping in a single transaction, a strategy that tends to limit slippage but can cap upside while the orders clear.

HYPE is part of the derivatives and DeFi sector, functioning as the core token of the Hyperliquid network, where traders use the platform for decentralized perpetual futures and leveraged speculation. Hyperliquid’s token previously touched an all-time high near $39.93 as 24‑hour trading volume surged to roughly $496 million and open interest climbed to $10.1 billion, according to DailyCoin’s earlier reporting on HYPE’s breakout. At the same time, total value locked in the protocol jumped more than 369% in a matter of weeks, from about $311.55 million to $1.462 billion, underscoring the scale of capital rotating into derivatives-focused DeFi.

Recent data suggests that large HYPE holders are actively managing exposure around the $35–$40 band. KuCoin Flash reported that another genesis whale, linked to the address known as tummy.hl, began selling 498,000 HYPE via TWAP orders for more than $20 million, with the sale expected to complete within 21 hours. Coingabbar’s price analysis noted that HYPE was trading near $34.73 in early February, up 30.53% over the preceding month, with open interest at $1.65 billion even as trading volumes fell 18% to about $805.7 million, suggesting a structurally bullish but increasingly crowded trade. Against that backdrop, High Stakes Capital’s exit looks less like capitulation and more like a textbook profit realization into a stretched market, as derivatives tokens and exchange-linked assets continue to outperform much of the broader crypto complex.

Key Highlights

• Meta shares decline 1.86% to $593.11 following AI processor collaboration announcement
• Company partners with Arm to create specialized CPUs for artificial intelligence operations
• Arm AGI CPU designed for AI model training, inference operations, and general computing
• Custom processor aims for enhanced data center efficiency and performance metrics
• Collaboration marks strategic pivot toward proprietary silicon and AI-focused infrastructure

Meta Platforms (META) shares traded down to $593.11, representing a 1.86% decline, after the social media giant announced a strategic CPU partnership with Arm. The stock experienced consistent downward movement throughout the trading session with sustained seller activity. The announcement underscored Meta’s evolving approach to building specialized infrastructure for enterprise-scale artificial intelligence operations.

Meta Platforms, Inc., META

Strategic CPU Collaboration Advances Meta’s Hardware Vision

Meta announced a strategic alliance with Arm to engineer a novel category of processors dedicated to artificial intelligence workloads. The initiative addresses escalating computational requirements throughout Meta’s expanding infrastructure footprint. This collaboration represents a significant step in the company’s ongoing commitment to proprietary hardware development.

The inaugural chip, designated as the Arm AGI CPU, specifically addresses AI model training and inference operations. The processor simultaneously handles general-purpose computational tasks throughout Meta’s technology stack. This dual capability enhances Meta’s capacity to deploy sophisticated AI systems at scale.

Meta actively expands its hardware portfolio through both internal innovation and collaborative partnerships. The Arm AGI CPU complements Meta’s existing MTIA silicon architecture for enhanced operational synergy. This multi-pronged strategy creates a more versatile and resource-efficient computing infrastructure.

Arm AGI CPU Delivers Advanced Performance Metrics

The Arm AGI CPU represents a novel architecture for data center computing optimized for artificial intelligence applications. The design prioritizes maximizing performance density per rack while minimizing power consumption. This engineering focus enables large-scale AI implementations with superior resource efficiency.

Arm engineered the processor to coordinate distributed AI operations across memory hierarchies, storage arrays, and network fabrics. Reference implementations demonstrate rack configurations delivering thousands of processing cores in space-efficient designs. Furthermore, liquid cooling implementations enable substantial scaling for computation-intensive applications.

The processor architecture targets superior performance compared to conventional x86 platforms in both density and operational efficiency metrics. Arm projects substantial cost reductions for enterprise-scale data center implementations. This value proposition addresses industry requirements for economically viable AI infrastructure expansion.

Industry Implications and Future Development Roadmap

Meta has substantially increased infrastructure capital allocation to enable sustained AI innovation. The company recently expanded GPU procurement through strategic agreements with leading chip manufacturers. Furthermore, internal roadmaps detail multiple proprietary AI processors currently under development.

Arm’s transition into direct data center processor manufacturing represents a departure from its historical licensing business model. The company now establishes itself as a primary contributor in AI-optimized silicon innovation. This strategic repositioning reflects transforming competitive dynamics within semiconductor architecture and commercial deployment.

Meta intends to distribute board specifications and rack blueprints via the Open Compute Project within the current calendar year. This open-source strategy may expedite implementation throughout data center infrastructure providers and technology enterprises. Expanded ecosystem engagement demonstrates increasing industry momentum toward AI-specialized computing platforms.

Key Highlights

• GameStop stock declines despite exceeding earnings forecasts and building substantial cash holdings
• Company surpasses profit expectations while total revenue experiences significant year-over-year contraction
• Aggressive expense management elevates profit margins despite declining sales figures
• Collectibles division expansion counterbalances softness in gaming hardware and software categories
• Robust financial position enhanced by $9B in liquid assets and cryptocurrency investments

GameStop Corp.(GME) experienced a downturn to $22.81, representing a 0.96% decrease, even as the company delivered stronger-than-expected profitability and maintained a formidable cash position. Extended trading hours witnessed additional pressure, with shares declining to $22.68, marking another 0.58% retreat. This negative momentum emerged during the final trading session despite the retailer showcasing enhanced earnings performance and substantial liquidity improvements.

GameStop Corp., GME

Profitability Surges While Top-Line Sales Contract

GameStop delivered fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.49 per share, surpassing Wall Street consensus estimates of $0.37. Conversely, total revenue came in at $1.1 billion, falling short of projections and marking a 13.9% year-over-year decrease. This divergence highlighted the company’s ability to enhance bottom-line performance while grappling with persistent sales challenges.

Adjusted operating income climbed substantially to $147.7 million, up from $84.4 million recorded in the corresponding quarter last year. Net income totaled $127.9 million, marginally trailing the previous year’s comparable result. Consequently, disciplined expense management and enhanced operational performance bolstered earnings despite ongoing revenue headwinds.

For the complete fiscal year 2025, GameStop generated adjusted net income of $647.4 million, representing a dramatic increase from $131.2 million previously. Operating income reversed course, delivering a positive $232.1 million versus the prior year’s loss. The retailer achieved a remarkable transformation in overall profitability throughout the entire fiscal period.

Liquidity Expands With Cryptocurrency Holdings

GameStop dramatically bolstered its cash reserves, with liquid assets and equivalents surging to $9.0 billion from $4.8 billion. Additionally, the retailer disclosed Bitcoin holdings and associated receivables totaling $368.4 million as of quarter close. Accordingly, the financial position demonstrated enhanced strategic flexibility and meaningful digital currency involvement.

Selling, general, and administrative costs decreased to $241.5 million from $282.5 million year-over-year. Reduced overhead expenses facilitated margin expansion and elevated adjusted profitability metrics. This strategic cost management underpinned financial gains amid persistent revenue challenges.

Full-year SG&A expenditures similarly contracted to $910.2 million from $1.130 billion in the prior fiscal year. Concurrently, adjusted operating income advanced to $289.5 million, completely reversing the previous year’s deficit. Thus, operational efficiency initiatives remained central to overall financial achievement.

Product Category Performance Reveals Strategic Pivot

GameStop’s collectibles division demonstrated impressive momentum, generating $365.0 million and representing 33.1% of overall revenue. Conversely, hardware and accessories revenue contracted to $535.6 million from $725.8 million. Likewise, software category sales dropped to $203.7 million from $286.2 million.

This evolving revenue composition demonstrated a strategic reorientation toward higher-margin product categories including collectibles. Core gaming merchandise categories encountered persistent demand weakness and diminished revenue generation. Management strategically reallocated resources toward divisions demonstrating superior growth characteristics.

Total annual sales decreased to $3.630 billion from $3.823 billion in the preceding fiscal year. Enhanced profitability metrics and aggressive cost management mitigated the revenue decline’s financial impact. Therefore, overall results illustrated a deliberate evolution toward a streamlined and more profitable business framework.

London-based crypto-friendly fintech giant Revolut reported record earnings for 2025 as it scales across new markets.

Profit before tax rose 57% year over year to $2.3 billion, while revenue climbed 46% to $6 billion, according to its annual report. The company posted its fifth straight year of net profit, which stood at $1.7 billion for 2025, with margins improving to 38%.

Growth came from a wider mix of services. Card payments, subscriptions, foreign exchange and wealth products each contributed meaningful income. Eleven business lines generated more than $135 million each, the firm said.

Customer activity also surged. Total balances increased 66% to $67.5 billion, while transaction volume reached $1.7 trillion. Revolut added 16 million retail users, bringing its total to 68.3 million. Business accounts rose to 767,000.

Regulatory progress remains central to its strategy. The firm now operates as a licensed bank in more than 30 markets, which earlier this month started including the U.K., and has filed for a U.S. banking license.

Revolut plans to invest $13 billion over five years and aims to reach 100 million customers by 2027, it said. The firm lets users buy and sell crypto through its platform, including through a dedicated exchange called Revolut X.

TLDR:

• Tether engaged a Big Four accounting firm for its first full independent audit in digital asset market history.
  
• The audit covers over $184 billion in USD₮ market cap, making it the largest inaugural audit in financial markets.
  
• CFO Simon McWilliams confirmed Tether already meets Big Four audit standards ahead of the formal review process.
  
• The audit moves Tether beyond standard stablecoin attestations, raising the accountability bar for all digital asset issuers.

Tether has engaged a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full independent financial audit. The stablecoin issuer, managing over $184 billion in market capitalization, made the announcement on March 24, 2026.

This move positions the company beyond standard attestation practices common among stablecoin issuers. With more than 550 million users globally, the audit is expected to be the largest inaugural audit in financial market history.

Tether Sets a New Benchmark for Stablecoin Transparency

The engagement followed a competitive selection process involving several major accounting firms. Each firm conducted a thorough assessment of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting.

Multiple stakeholders participated during the onboarding phase, which concluded weeks before the announcement. The level of interest from audit firms reflects how closely the industry is watching this development.

CEO Paolo Ardoino spoke directly to the weight of the decision. “Tether’s mission has always been to build trust through action, not promises,” he said.

He further noted that trust is built when institutions are willing to open themselves fully to scrutiny. For users and businesses relying on USD₮ daily, this process is about accountability, resilience, and long-term confidence in the infrastructure they depend on.

CFO Simon McWilliams, appointed in early 2025, has been central to preparing the company for this process. He stated clearly that “the organisation is already operating at Big Four audit standard; the audit will be delivered.”

His appointment marked a turning point in the company’s internal governance and financial architecture. His leadership helped build the systems needed for a fully independent review.

Tether has consistently retained earnings within its ecosystem rather than distributing profits externally. Capital remains available in affiliated proprietary holding companies to support USD₮ stability.

As part of the audit process, the company will move listed securities in the coming days. The ongoing audit will provide full visibility into how those reserves are positioned.

Currently, attestations remain the industry standard for stablecoin issuers. Tether is moving beyond that floor toward a full audit that carries far greater scrutiny.

This shift reflects a broader push for institutional-grade accountability across the digital asset sector. Other issuers are now likely to face increased pressure to follow suit.

What the Audit Means for USD₮ Users and the Broader Market

Ardoino described the audit as representing “years of work to strengthen our systems so that Tether can meet the highest standards applied in global finance.”

That preparation involved expanding governance structures, tightening financial controls, and aligning reporting processes with Big Four expectations. The result is a company that entered the audit engagement from a position of readiness rather than obligation.

The audit process covers a uniquely complex mix of digital assets, traditional reserves, and tokenized liabilities. Few institutions outside major sovereign entities operate at a comparable scale.

That complexity makes the review one of the most technically demanding audits ever attempted. Completing it successfully would mark a major milestone for digital asset infrastructure.

Tether has also worked with global law enforcement to identify illicit activity and freeze unlawful funds. These efforts have strengthened USD₮’s reputation as a reliable digital dollar.

Combined with robust compliance systems, the audit adds another layer of credibility to its reserve management practices.

Tether’s broader mission centers on financial access in regions where traditional banking systems are limited or fragile. Open digital dollars, in the company’s view, are essential to enabling economic opportunity.

The audit supports that mission by reinforcing the trustworthiness of the underlying infrastructure. Users in underserved markets stand to benefit directly from greater institutional confidence in USD₮.

The company has invested heavily in governance, risk management, and internal controls over recent years. Those investments laid the groundwork for meeting Big Four audit requirements.

Moving forward, Tether aims to use this audit as a foundation for continued transparency efforts. The result could reshape how the broader market evaluates stablecoin issuers going forward.

Around 96% of crypto wallets trading Pump Fun-launched tokens have made less than $500 in the past month, with over 50% posting a loss.

That’s according to Dune analytics compiled by analyst @oladee.

Oladee’s data shows that 45.6% of traders made profits up to $500, while 50.6% suffered losses. 

The figures were apparently misreported by market analyst Ted Pillows who claimed that they showed 96% of Pump Fun token traders on decentralised exchanges had suffered PnL losses this month. 

On the contrary, two wallets made over $1 million trading Pump Fun tokens this past month. On the other end of the scale, two lost anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million. 

Read more: X Creators $1M prize winner exposed as memecoin pump-and-dumper

It’s worth noting that the data just shows the number of wallets, and that individual traders can create multiple wallets if they want to. 

Pump Fun token launchers are making bank

While the majority of individuals trading these tokens aren’t making bank, the ones deploying them certainly are. 

According to crypto analyst Dethective, the top 250 deployers of Pump Fun tokens have extracted $79 million from traders.  

Dethective added that these 250 wallets only deployed around 10 tokens that managed to exceed a market cap of $5 million. The wallets also launched 194,000 tokens over the past six months.

Read more: Binance token listing no longer a ‘bullish’ event, research

Dethective notes that his findings don’t necessarily represent 250 different people, but are specifically 250 crypto wallets. 

Pump Fun token down 80%, and there’s still no airdrop

Pump Fun has recently pivoted towards AI and the emerging sector of agentic trading that involves AI software trading on your behalf.

In this spirit, the memecoin platform announced a system of automated buyback options for third-party AI agents. 

This feature wasn’t well received by Pump Fun traders on X who are still restless over the platform’s reluctance to roll out an airdrop that it said, 258 days ago, would be coming “soon.”

Read more: Crypto firms cut jobs as bear market and AI shift bite

Pump Fun hasn’t addressed its airdrop on X since then, and it’s unclear what its current status is.  The price of its $PUMP token is down 80% from it’s all-time-high of $0.008819 in September last year.

One factor that might be delaying things is the ongoing crypto bear market and the wider economic fallout from the US-Israel war against Iran.

Indeed, last week, crypto exchange Kraken announced that it was delaying the launch of its initial public offering until “market conditions improve.”

NFT platform OpenSea also announced that it would delay launching its $SEA token due to the “challenging” market conditions across crypto. 

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