Diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States showed early signs of progress after senior officials from both countries held talks in Switzerland.

Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan said the discussions were constructive, as both sides agreed to a 60-day timeline to secure a final deal. Further technical meetings are scheduled to take place at the Burgenstock resort later this week. The optimism surrounding the talks briefly pushed Bitcoin (BTC) above $64,000, although the asset later gave back some gains and fell below the level.

However, tensions between the two countries still linger as the deal was not signed by June 19 as promised and there are new attacks between Israel and Lebanon. One analyst has outlined a potential downside scenario for Bitcoin if wider market conditions deteriorate.

Worst-Case Scenario

Bitcoin could fall to $23,979 in 2026 if the broader stock market suffers a crash of more than 50%, according to technical analyst Jesse Olson. He shared a two-week Bitcoin chart that depicted BTC potentially declining toward the $23,980 level, based on a long-term volume-weighted support line derived from his proprietary Market Sniper Pro VWAP indicator.

Olson said such a move would likely require a major stock market downturn while adding that he does not expect Bitcoin to fall to zero.

Meanwhile, another prominent market commentator, Doctor Profit, said that Bitcoin is forming a bearish flag on the daily chart, while growing market optimism is creating liquidity below current prices. He said Bitcoin’s recent uptick matched his earlier expectations and explained that prices can revisit the same levels several times during sideways trading. He expects the asset to eventually fall toward the $54,000-$56,000 range before finding a market bottom at lower levels.

Lagging Institutional Demand

Between June 14 and June 18, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $227 million and extended their losing streak to six straight weeks.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost also highlighted the weak institutional appetite for Bitcoin and said the Coinbase Premium Index has remained largely negative in recent weeks. The indicator compares BTC prices on Coinbase Advanced and Binance to gauge the behavior of professional and retail investors.

According to Darkfost, negative readings mean that institutions trading on Coinbase are selling more aggressively than retail investors on Binance, which has created downward pressure on prices. He added that a wider price gap between the two exchanges points to a greater divergence in investor behavior. Institutional investors are not trying to catch a market bottom; instead, they prefer to wait for stronger price performance and clearer signs of a recovery before increasing their Bitcoin exposure.

The post Is a 60% Bitcoin Crash Still on the Table? Analyst Points to Wall Street appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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USD1's circulating supply expanded 9.7% over the past seven days to $4.85 billion, a 100th-percentile move on the World Liberty Financial-issued stablecoin's three-month supply history. The dollar increase works out to roughly $427 million in new tokens between Monday last week and Sunday,… Read the full story at The Defiant

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Micron Technology (MU) shares climbed nearly 5% on Monday after the memory maker unveiled a strategic deal with Anthropic covering chip design, long-term supply, and an equity investment in the AI lab.

The announcement landed two days before Micron reports fiscal third-quarter results, sharpening investor focus on how AI memory demand is feeding the company’s growth.

Inside the Micron and Anthropic deal

Micron announced the partnership on Monday. It frames the tie-up as a bridge between frontier AI models and the design of memory hardware. The two firms will co-engineer memory and storage subsystems tuned for AI training and inference.

The deal also locks in a multi-year supply arrangement across Micron’s data center portfolio. It covers high-bandwidth memory, DRAM, and solid-state drives.

That gives Anthropic committed components as Claude usage keeps growing.

The supply guarantee carries weight given Anthropic’s scale. The lab’s run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion in May, and its latest raise valued it at $965 billion. Securing memory now hedges against a market where AI chips are scarce.

Micron also took a strategic stake in Anthropic’s Series H round. It joined Samsung and SK hynix, the world’s other leading memory makers, as named infrastructure backers of Anthropic.

Inside its own walls, Micron uses Claude to accelerate engineering and coding work.

“Our compute strategy depends on getting every layer of the stack right, and memory and storage are central to how efficiently we can train and serve Claude… As demand for Claude grows, this is how we scale our compute for the long term,” read an excerpt in the announcement, citing Tom Brown, co-founder and chief compute officer at Anthropic.

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MU Stock Climbs Ahead of Earnings

Micron’s MU shares rose nearly 5% intraday, extending a rally built on booming AI memory demand.

Micron set an all-time high above $1,130 on June 18, and the stock has more than tripled in 2026. It now trades above that record at $1,192, ahead of Wednesday’s earnings release, capping a busy reporting week.

The timing matters because memory pricing has tightened sharply. Deutsche Bank’s Melissa Weathers raised her price target to $1,500 from $1,000 on June 17.

TD Cowen’s Krish Sankar matched that figure, citing a projected 2027 earnings per share of roughly $150.

Both analysts expect the memory shortage to run well into 2028.

Still, not every desk sees Micron as the cleanest AI bet. Some Wall Street strategists have favored Nvidia over Micron, pointing to steadier exposure to AI infrastructure spending.

Wednesday’s report will test whether the Anthropic deal signals a lasting demand pipeline or a well-timed headline.

With memory in short supply and prices climbing, Micron’s guidance may reveal more about 2027 than the quarter just ended.

The post Micron Stock Jumps 5% on Anthropic AI Deal Ahead of Earnings appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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DeFi risk curator Re7 Labs said this morning that wallets affected by the March exploit of Resolv Labs' USR stablecoin can claim a share of a 223,000 USDC compensation pool. The makeup payment closes one of the smaller curator-side liabilities tied to the incident. The pool covers users whose… Read the full story at The Defiant

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The prolonged bear market has left numerous crypto investors underwater, as prices of countless digital assets have crashed by double digits over the past several months.

Despite the grim reality, the current environment might be an ideal time to invest in tokens that could deliver substantial gains in the next bull run. The real challenge is identifying which ones fit that profile, so we asked three of the most popular AI-powered chatbots for their perspective.

The Surprising Choices

ChatGPT started with Solana (SOL), describing it as its “easiest” pick. It claimed to have the best combination of liquidity, institutional interest, retail attention, and ecosystem activity and predicted that if the next bull cycle is driven by meme coins, the token will be “one of the clearest winners.”

Hyperliquid (HYPE) ranked second.ChatGPT praised its role in the DeFi sector, its rising popularity, and its strong fundamentals, but warned that an exploit on the exchange could undermine its chances of becoming a top performer during the eventual bull run. Third place goes to Chainlink (LINK), which was labeled “not flashy” but deserves attention.

“If banks, funds, stablecoin issuers, and asset managers keep moving assets on-chain, they need data, proof of reserves, cross-chain messaging, and settlement infrastructure. That is exactly where Chainlink wants to sit. Chainlink’s CCIP and institutional tokenization push make it a strong “picks and shovels” play for the next cycle. LINK could benefit even if the winning chains are different, because Chainlink is infrastructure across ecosystems,” its analysis reads.

Ondo (ONDO) and Sui (SUI) completed ChatGPT’s top 5 list. The former was classified as a “direct RWA pick,” while the latter was classified as one that has “strong technology, fast execution, a growing ecosystem, and enough retail appeal to move hard in a bull market.”

Google’s Gemini also placed SOL in the top spot in its rankings. It claimed that the asset has cemented itself as the primary alternative to Ethereum and highlighted its “blistering speed” and low transaction fees.

Chainlink comes second, while NEAR Protocol (NEAR), with its close ties to emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, ranks third. Arbitrum (ARB) is fourth, and SUI completed the top 5 group.

The More Expected Answer

While ChatGPT and Gemini both left Bitcoin (BTC) off their lists, Perplexity placed it at the very top of its own. It praised the asset as the undisputed leader in the crypto market, adding that it typically draws significant attention when risk appetite returns.

The chatbot picked Ethereum (ETH) as the second-best option, noting that it remains the core smart contract platform, with DeFi, NFTs, and ETF-driven institutional interest as key catalysts. Its top 5 club also includes Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), and Bittensor (TAO).

“These coins are not just “hype picks”; they map to major cycle narratives like institutional adoption, scalable blockchains, tokenization, and AI infrastructure. That usually matters more in bull runs than trying to guess the single most viral meme coin,” it stated.

The post 5 Cryptocurrencies That Could Explode in the Next Bull Run: 3 AIs Give Surprising Answers appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Bitcoin (BTC) passed $65,000 at Monday’s Wall Street open as exchange order-book liquidity dictated price moves.

Key points:

• Bitcoin hits a new week-to-date high despite US stocks rolling over at the start of trading.
• Traders’ targets include a move toward $70,000 next.
• Liquidations are described as “completely insane” as both long and short BTC positions get chopped up.

Bitcoin surfs $65,000 as oil eyes new lows

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $65,555 on Bitstamp — its highest since Wednesday.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The move contrasted with US stock markets, which opened lower on continued uncertainty over the fate of the US-Iran peace deal. The mood settled as the US allowed Iranian oil trading for two months.

“Iranian oil is officially returning to global markets for the first time since 2018,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded in a post on X.

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US WTI crude returned to near $73 per barrel, marking some of its lowest levels since early March and the start of the war.

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

For Bitcoin traders, it was all about nearby pockets of liquidity around the spot price on the day.

“Took out that thick liquidation cluster above $65K. Right after the US Market open. Going to be important where this moves in the next few hours,” Daan Crypto Trades commented alongside data from CoinGlass. 

BTC liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass

“If it rejects here, it will likely try to clean up some liquidity lower. So this is $65K area is a good level to gauge for low timeframe strength/weakness I’d say.”

Trader CrypNuevo eyed a potential trip toward $70,000 should bulls manage to sustain the low-time frame breakout.

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BTC/USDT one-hour chart. Source: CrypNuevo/X

BTC sees “insane” multibillion-dollar liquidations

Trading and liquidity analysis account CryptoReviewing, meanwhile, described recent liquidations as “completely insane.”

Related: US dollar strength hits highest since May 2025: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin, it noted, had liquidated $2.5 billion in just seven days.

“Now, $65,000 – $67,000 has sizable liquidity above that could be swept next – potentially leading to higher levels,” an X post read. 

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“However, $61,000 – $63,000 has significantly larger liquidation clusters stacked up, making this the ‘higher probability’ zone to visit next.”

A cautionary note came from trader Killa, who noted that Mondays had tended to mark the week’s swing high for Bitcoin in recent months.

“Over the past six weeks, 6 out of 6 Mondays have marked a local pivot high before price moved lower. Worth keeping an eye on if we start seeing strength and a push higher heading into Monday,” they told X followers.

BTC/USD with Monday peaks marked. Source: Killa/X

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Solana News: The Solana Foundation and Toss Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding, marking the first direct partnership between a South Korean internet-only bank and the Solana ecosystem, and positioning the deal squarely inside parent company Viva Republica’s pre-IPO technology narrative.

SOL sitting at $74 on the announcement, with trading volume rising 8% over 24 hours, though concurrent US-Iran peace talk developments complicate clean attribution of that volume spike to the MOU alone.

Toss Bank serves 15 million customers across South Korea as the country’s third-largest internet-only bank, and its overseas remittance service already covers 30 countries and 7 major currencies.

That existing footprint gives the Solana-based proof of concept a non-trivial addressable base from day one; this is not a greenfield experiment.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

Solana News: MOU Scope, Four Workstreams, One Live PoC

The MOU covers four areas: a proof of concept for global remittance and settlement infrastructure built on Solana; joint research into blockchain-based payment and settlement models; exploration of stablecoin and digital asset financial services; and a longer-term cooperation framework that includes integration with overseas banking partners and AML/KYC compliance systems.

The immediate live work is the PoC, everything downstream of that depends on what it produces.

Jin-hyun Park, head of strategy at Toss Bank, said the partnership launches “a phased pilot within the innovative services already provided by Toss Bank,” with the stated goal of delivering “quicker and more economical global digital finance through Solana” to its 15 million customers.

The framing is deliberate: this is positioned as an upgrade to existing infrastructure, not a speculative pivot into crypto.

Solana’s technical case here is straightforward: sub-second finality and transaction fees measured in fractions of a cent make it a credible rail for high-volume cross-border settlement, where SWIFT-era correspondent banking costs are the baseline to beat.

The tokenization roadmap comes later, contingent on PoC outcomes and regulatory clearance. An MOU is a narrative event; live PoC results are execution events. The market will need to see the latter before the former carries durable weight.

The Solana Foundation had already been building Korean institutional infrastructure before this deal. A separate MOU with local firm Wavebridge targets a KRW-pegged stablecoin designed to be “issued, validated, regulated, and suitable for institutional applications,” with on-chain settlement and tokenized deposit functionality involving major Korean banks. The Toss Bank partnership slots into that broader Korea strategy rather than standing alone.

Why the Solana Bet Lands Now: Viva Republica’s $10B IPO Play

Viva Republica, the parent company behind Toss Bank and the broader Toss super-app ecosystem, is targeting a US IPO in 2026 at a valuation exceeding $10 billion.

The firm has raised over $1.2 billion from investors, including GIC, Sequoia China, and Kleiner Perkins, and boosted Toss Bank’s paid-in capital to roughly 1.4 trillion won (~$1 billion) across six funding rounds to support growth and listing readiness.

The Solana MOU serves three functions in that IPO story. First, it reframes Viva Republica as a cross-border payments platform tapping a projected $320 trillion global payments market, not merely a domestic Korean neobank, which commands a tighter multiple on a US exchange. Second, the compliance-first architecture (AML/KYC integration, bank license, regulated stablecoin rails) places Toss in the regulated-innovator category rather than alongside unregulated crypto firms, a meaningful distinction for US institutional allocators.

Third, blockchain settlement rails lower marginal cost per remittance transaction, supporting the margin expansion narrative that pre-IPO models need.

This is legitimate strategic positioning, not window dressing, but the distinction between a partnership announcement and shipped infrastructure matters for any investor reading the prospectus. Viva Republica is telling a story that the PoC needs to eventually validate.

The regulatory context adds urgency. South Korea plans to impose foreign exchange controls on crypto transfers starting December 2026.

Toss Bank moving now, via a licensed, compliance-integrated framework, positions it ahead of that cutoff rather than scrambling to retrofit after the rules land. The Bank of Korea’s concurrent wholesale CBDC and tokenized deposit pilot with 100,000 users provides the policy backdrop that makes a bank-grade stablecoin remittance product politically viable rather than speculative.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

The post Solana Foundation and Toss Bank Sign MOU to Rebuild Korean Remittance Rails appeared first on Cryptonews.

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