The boom in glucagon-like peptide-1s for weight loss has led some people to seek out other peptides in the hope that they too will have health benefits.

However, because these alternative compounds aren’t approved for medical use, you can’t acquire them with a prescription and a trip to Walgreens; people instead are turning to gray and black market sources to purchase them.

These sources, often online, tend to not be serviced by traditional payment processors, and so, according to a report from Bloomberg, these sites and the consumers who use them have turned to cryptocurrency to solve their payment needs.

Solana price has stalled near $76 after repeated failures at $80, as two ecosystem exploits, weak momentum, and geopolitical stress have kept traders cautious.

According to data from crypto.news, Solana (SOL) price traded at $76.12 at the time of writing, down 0.34% on the daily candle after moving between $75.50 and $77.40. The token has gained only about 0.3% over the past seven days, compared with a 3% rise across the global crypto market.

Security concerns have weighed on sentiment throughout July. An attacker drained roughly $20 million from BonkDAO after spending about $4.4 million to acquire enough BONK to pass a malicious governance proposal. Only seven wallets voted, and the proposal received 99.9% approval.

Another attack hit Allbridge Core on July 20. crypto.news reported that the exploiter borrowed $1.12 million in USDC through Kamino, manipulated the protocol’s USDC-USDT pool and extracted more than $1.1 million before routing the funds through privacy tools. Some estimates placed the total liquidity loss near $1.65 million, while Allbridge paused the protocol and began investigating the incident.

Phantom also reported degraded performance for token transfers and swaps on July 12. Account balances and other wallet functions remained available, but the disruption added friction for users during a week in which SOL was already struggling to draw enough demand for a break above $80.

Network activity has provided little relief. Trading on Pump.fun and other speculative venues has fallen from previous peaks, reducing the fee activity that once accompanied Solana’s memecoin boom. Stablecoin balances on the network may offer deployable capital, but holders must exchange those assets for SOL before that liquidity can support the token directly.

Solana price must reclaim $80 to confirm a bullish reversal

The daily chart places the main resistance at $79.96, where SOL’s early-July recovery failed, and sellers pushed the price back toward $75. A daily close above $80 would clear the psychological barrier and reopen the route toward the July swing high around $83, followed by the $90–$98 region.

According to analyst Daan Crypto Trades, SOL now sits at a decisive high-time-frame area where its next reaction could set the direction for the coming weeks.

“Either the bulls push through and set a higher low here to take a stab at the range high in the $90s. Or this rejects here and dribbles back down to that mid $60s area.”

Daily momentum has weakened since the early-July rally. The moving average convergence divergence line has dropped to 0.23, below its 0.63 signal line, while the histogram has slipped to minus 0.40. Buyers still control the medium-term structure above the daily Supertrend at $69.62, but the bearish MACD crossover leaves SOL exposed to another test of support.

On the 4-hour chart, SOL remains inside a descending parallel channel that began after the July 3 peak near $83. Price has reached the upper boundary around $76–$77, making a confirmed close above the trendline necessary before traders can treat the latest advance as a breakout.

Conflicting momentum readings keep that setup unresolved. Aroon Down stands at 78.57%, compared with Aroon Up at 14.29%, giving sellers the stronger recent trend reading. Chaikin Money Flow, however, sits at 0.23, which shows that net capital flow over the measured period remains positive despite the lower highs.

The one-week liquidation heatmap shows concentrated leverage above the market at $77.50–$78.20, with another dense band near $78.80. A move through those levels could force short liquidations and help SOL retest $80. Smaller liquidity pockets sit near $76.40, while downside clusters around $74.20–$75 could draw price lower if buyers lose control of $75.41.

Break below $73 would invalidate the recovery attempt

Immediate support rests at $75.41, followed by the stronger daily level at $73.44. A close below the latter would weaken the higher-low structure and expose the lower edge of the 4-hour channel near $71. The Supertrend at $69.62 would then become the last major defense before Daan’s mid-$60s bearish target returns to view.

Macroeconomic conditions also threaten the setup. Renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities have pushed oil above $90 per barrel and lifted the average U.S. gasoline price back to $4, according to AP. Higher energy costs could keep inflation elevated and limit the Federal Reserve’s room to reduce interest rates.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.56% on July 20, while the dollar index held near 100.8. Persistently high yields and a firm dollar could keep institutional portfolios defensive and restrict capital flows into volatile altcoins.

For bulls, the clean confirmation remains a daily close above $80 followed by a successful retest. Until then, SOL remains trapped between positive spot inflows on the 4-hour chart and a weakening daily momentum structure, with $73–$80 defining the next decisive range.

Cardano price remained under pressure on Monday despite the activation of the network’s van Rossem hard fork, leaving ADA traders focused on whether the token can break through its next major resistance zone.

ADA was trading near $0.162 at the time of writing, down around 2% over 24 hours. The token has remained broadly flat over the past month after a long decline from levels near $0.90 to $1.00. Its market capitalization stands near $6.06 billion, while daily trading volume is around $240 million.

The latest price action comes just after Cardano moved to Protocol Version 11 through the van Rossem hard fork. The network upgrade improved parts of the Plutus smart contract framework and prepared Cardano for future scaling work, but it has not yet produced a sustained ADA price rally.

Cardano price struggles to hold above $0.16

The ADA/USDT daily chart remains in a broader bearish structure. Cardano has fallen sharply from its 2025 highs and recently settled into a narrow range around $0.16. The latest consolidation has slowed the decline, but buyers have yet to establish a clear sequence of higher highs and higher lows.

ADA is also trading below the middle Bollinger Band near $0.1688. The upper band sits around $0.1887, while the lower band is close to $0.1489. This places the price in the lower half of its current volatility range. A sustained move above $0.17 would improve the short-term setup, while a renewed decline could put the $0.15 area back in focus.

The Relative Strength Index stands at 45.62, slightly below its moving average of 47.10. The reading shows that momentum has recovered from more extreme selling conditions but remains below the neutral 50 mark. Buyers therefore have not yet gained firm control of the daily trend.

This weak structure follows months of pressure on ADA. Cardano fell below $0.20 in June as its broader market decline continued. Earlier technical analysis also identified weak momentum indicators as ADA struggled to establish durable support.

Van Rossem hard fork fails to trigger an immediate ADA rally

Cardano activated the van Rossem hard fork on July 18, taking the mainnet to Protocol Version 11. The upgrade became the network’s first hard fork approved and ratified entirely through its onchain governance system.

The upgrade adds Plutus improvements and changes to the cost model used for smart contract execution. It also prepares the technical foundation for the planned Dijkstra era and Ouroboros Leios, which aims to increase Cardano’s transaction capacity. As crypto.news reported, the upgrade went live after moving through Cardano’s governance process and earlier testnet stages.

However, ADA has so far shown little sustained response to the network event. The token remains near the same price area it occupied before activation. That price behavior suggests traders are still weighing broader market conditions and technical resistance alongside the protocol upgrade.

The hard fork can improve the network’s underlying technology without automatically driving immediate demand for ADA. For the price setup, traders are now watching whether activity following the upgrade can support stronger buying pressure over a longer period.

Mixed derivatives data keeps traders cautious

Derivatives indicators also show a divided market. ADA funding rates recently turned positive, with the rate at about 0.0061%. Positive funding generally means traders holding long positions pay those holding shorts, showing that positioning has shifted somewhat toward the bullish side.

However, the ADA long-to-short ratio remained near 0.90. A reading below one means short positions continue to outnumber longs under that measure. The two indicators therefore point in different directions, with improving funding but continued caution among derivatives traders.

The mixed positioning follows heavy short interest ahead of the hard fork. ADA traded near $0.1628 before the upgrade as traders increased bearish positions even while large holders accumulated tokens. Liquidity was concentrated around $0.16 and $0.17, making those levels important for the next move.

The $0.16 area has continued to act as an immediate support zone after the fork. Losing that level could expose ADA to the lower Bollinger Band near $0.149. Holding it would give buyers another opportunity to test the resistance immediately above the current range.

ADA needs to reclaim $0.17 to target $0.19

The first technical level for Cardano bulls is the $0.168 to $0.17 area, which aligns closely with the middle Bollinger Band and a previous liquidity zone. A daily move above that range would return ADA to the upper half of its recent trading channel.

Beyond that, the $0.188 to $0.19 area represents the next major resistance zone. The upper Bollinger Band sits near this level, making a break above $0.19 a stronger signal that the short-term structure is changing. RSI would also need to climb above 50 to show firmer momentum from buyers.

Until those conditions develop, ADA remains in a consolidation phase inside a much larger downtrend. The van Rossem upgrade provides a new network catalyst, while development toward Leios gives Cardano another technical milestone to watch. However, price confirmation still depends on buyers pushing through nearby resistance.

Bitmine (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury firm, bought just 7,430 ether (ETH) last week, dialing back its buying spree as it redirected capital to a stock buyback.

The latest purchase, worth about $14 million at ether’s current price of $1,879, lifted BitMine’s holdings to 5,78 million ETH, or roughly 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, according to a Monday company update.

BMNR was 2.4% higher in pre-market trading.

The purchase marks one of firm’s smallest weekly additions since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025. By comparison, the firm bought more than 111,000 ETH during one week in May and had regularly acquired tens of thousands of tokens throughout the first half of the year. The firm is nearing its goal to corner 5% of ETH supply.

Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee attributed the slowdown to the company’s decision to repurchase approximately 5.5 million shares at an average price of $15.62 under its previously authorized $4 billion buyback program.

“The reduced pace of buys reflects that Bitmine repurchased 5.5 million common shares,” Lee said. He added that the company has purchased ETH every week since adopting its treasury strategy just over a year ago.

Veteran trader Peter Brandt says he has pinpointed the exact day in 2026 when he expects Bitcoin to hit the bottom of this market cycle.

“I’ll go out on a limb and say we bottom on October 4th. So we’ll see,” Brandt tells Cointelegraph during an interview for Trade Secrets. 

Of course, picking the exact day of a market bottom is a tough ask, but the 51-year trading veteran has held firm on his October prediction for Bitcoin’s cycle low for quite some time.

He says Bitcoin could fall below $50,000 and potentially into the high-$40,000 range before establishing what he expects will be the cycle low.

“Whether it’s at these kinds of current levels, or we crash through and really blow people out and move into the 50s, possibly the high 40s… You know, you have to remember that every major bear market in Bitcoin’s history since its inception has been an 80% plus correction. If you take Bitcoin’s high in the 120s, that would indicate that,” Brandt says.

Bitcoin is trading at $63,661 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Many traders believe Bitcoin’s current level around $60,000 could be the cycle bottom, but Brandt isn’t convinced. He says there is still too much optimism that prices will bounce back.

“Right now it’s neutral [sentiment]. Markets don’t bottom on neutral sentiment. Markets bottom on panic and volume.”

“The same people that are saying Bitcoin’s bottom at some point in time will be giving up on Bitcoin, throwing in the towel, and saying we’re done with Bitcoin, we’re going on to other assets, the Bitcoin phenomenon is done,” Brandt says.

Brandt says Bitcoin is a better bet than AI stocks

While some in crypto have blamed the AI boom for pulling money away from Bitcoin and the broader market, Brandt isn’t convinced the AI trade can keep climbing forever.

“I do not believe that somebody who goes all in on AI stocks right now will be very happy with that investment two, three years from now,” Brandt says, explaining that if he had $10,000 right now he would split it 50% between Bitcoin and precious metals.

“I think precious metals are closer to a bottom price-wise; I think Bitcoin may be closer to a bottom time-wise,” he says.

Brandt says Bitcoin won’t reach its cycle peak until 2029, forecasting a price between $250,000 and $300,000. If he’s right, Bitcoin would have just a year to climb from that range to the far more ambitious $1 million target projected by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood for 2030.

It adds new capabilities to Plutus, the platform developers use to write Cardano’s smart contracts, unifying the built-in functions available across the platform’s three versions so older applications gain newer features.

The upgrade also tightens several of the ledger’s validation rules, including one guaranteeing that no two stake pools can reuse the same cryptographic identity key.

“As well as Plutus improvements and Plutus Cost Model enhancements, this upgrade lays the foundation for the next upgrade, the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano,” Input Output wrote in a development report on Friday.

Ouroboros Leios is a scaling proposal for the proof-of-stake consensus model that Cardano runs. It is expected later in 2026 and aimed at sharply increasing transactions per second without weakening the protocol’s security guarantees.

Van Rossem is the procedural groundwork for Ouroboros, both in the ledger changes it ships and in the precedent it sets: that Cardano can now upgrade itself by vote.

The hard fork is named for Max van Rossem, a Cardano governance contributor who helped shape the network’s constitution and died in October 2025.

What the hard fork means for a Cardano user

There are no visible changes for someone casually holding or spending ADA. Transactions work the same way, wallets do not need updating and the fee to send ADA is unchanged. The upgrade does not alter how the network looks or feels to use.