Polymarket has enabled instant self-custodial Bitcoin deposits through the Lightning Network, using payment infrastructure from Spark. 

The update gives users a faster way to move BTC into the prediction market platform.

Spark said users can now deposit Bitcoin into Polymarket with more speed and more privacy than the older on-chain method. The company said deposits that once required on-chain confirmation wait times can now settle in seconds.

Bitcoin BTC$62,830.35 and the broader cryptocurrency market came under pressure Tuesday after the US and Iran exchanged aerial strikes, sending the dollar higher.

BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, slipped to $62,657 in Asian trading hours, down nearly 1% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk data. Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL) fell between 1% and 2.3%. WTI crude futures jumped more than 2% to $72.27, while the Dollar Index held steady above 101.00, maintaining Tuesday’s gains.

The U.S. said it launched “powerful strikes” against Iran following attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, including Qatari and Saudi tankers. In response, Iran said it targeted “85 US military installations” in retaliation for strikes on its Hormozgan and Mahshahr provinces.

The scale of the escalation appears to have pushed the two nations’ ceasefire to the brink of collapse.

The Iran war erupted in late February, pushing oil prices well above $100 per barrel and generating a massive inflationary shock worldwide. While prices have since crashed back below $60, inflation expectations among consumers have continued to rise, fueling fears of interest rate hikes across the world, including in the US.

Higher rates make it more difficult for traders to abandon yields from supposedly safe bonds in favor of higher-risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Strike, the Bitcoin financial services firm led by Jack Mallers, has introduced a new “volatility-proof” Bitcoin-backed loan designed to reduce the risk of margin calls and forced liquidations during sharp market drops. The trade-off is cost and scheduling discipline: the program carries a higher interest rate, a shorter loan term, and an expectation that borrowers make payments on time.

In a Tuesday announcement, Mallers said the product was built in response to customer feedback on Strike’s earlier Bitcoin loan offering launched in May 2025—an initial rollout that coincided with a severe drawdown. During that period, Bitcoin fell 54% from peak to trough, and many borrowers were liquidated.

Key takeaways

• Strike’s new loans aim to remove margin calls and price-triggered liquidations, limiting forced selling during downturns.
• The mechanism requires borrowers to stay current; missed payments can still lead Strike to sell collateral.
• Terms are shorter than Strike’s standard product and the interest rate is higher—up to an APR range around 10.7% to 14.2% based on Strike’s disclosed structure.
• The maximum initial loan-to-value ratio is 45%, which lowers borrowing capacity relative to the collateral posted.

A product aimed at breaking the “volatility-to-liquidation” link

In his remarks, Mallers summarized the core design goal: “No margin calls. No price liquidations. No matter how far bitcoin falls, your bitcoin doesn’t move.” He emphasized that the protection comes with conditions—namely paying on time and accepting a higher cost and shorter term than Strike’s standard loans.

Strike’s pitch matters because the industry has spent years trying to broaden Bitcoin’s utility beyond holding and transfers. Yet adoption of crypto-backed lending has lagged, largely due to uncertainty around how quickly collateral can be liquidated when markets move. A June report from crypto lending platform Ledn—referenced in the announcement—found that 88% of surveyed crypto investors would consider crypto-backed loans, but only 14% actually use them, citing a “crypto collateral gap” driven by volatility and confidence issues.

Volatility has been a persistent challenge for Bitcoin loans. Mallers pointed out that Bitcoin has fallen by 30% or more in 10 of the past 12 years, and that drawdowns of 50% or more have occurred four times since 2014. The new loan structure attempts to address a key behavioral and structural concern: that borrowers can be forced to sell when prices drop, even if they would be able to manage debt payments under a different risk framework.

How Strike’s “volatility-proof” structure changes borrowing terms

According to Strike’s details, the volatility-proof loans have a maximum initial loan-to-value ratio of 45%. That means a borrower posting $100,000 in Bitcoin could borrow up to $45,000 under this framework. Strike also disclosed that the APR is meaningfully higher than for its standard Bitcoin loan product, with an additional charge intended to support extra hedging designed to protect the system.

Strike’s standard Bitcoin loans carry an annual percentage rate between 7.75% and 11.25%. The new product is described as 2.95 percentage points higher than the standard offering, putting the volatility-proof APR roughly in the 10.7% to 14.2% range. Mallers characterized the approach as an exchange: “If you’re OK with a slightly shorter term and a little bit higher of a fee, there is no price move that can liquidate you.”

The company also pointed to Bitcoin’s recent market backdrop to frame why the change was necessary. Over the past year, Bitcoin has dropped 54% from its all-time high of $126,080 in October to $58,190 on June 25, according to the figures cited in the announcement.

Other market participants highlighted the product’s potential benefit while still acknowledging the cost. Investor Fred Krueger, responding on X, said the loan model could address “one of Bitcoin’s biggest structural problems: forced selling during market crashes,” arguing that defaults would be tied more to borrowers’ ability to service debt rather than temporary price swings. Vibes Capital Management executive chairman Rob Topping also welcomed the liquidity angle for users who want near-term cash without liquidation risk, while calling the 14% APR expensive.

Payments still matter: the rules shift from price risk to default risk

Strike’s volatility-proof label is not absolute. The company’s approach redirects risk away from price-based liquidations and toward payment behavior. Mallers said that if a borrower misses a payment, they have 10 days to catch up or contact Strike to explain their financial situation.

If Strike does not hear from the borrower after that 10-day period, the company may begin liquidating the borrower’s Bitcoin collateral to cover the overdue amount. Mallers underscored this distinction by stating that the product is designed to be “volatility-proof,” not “liquidation-proof,” adding that if clients appear to be “doing a hit-and-run,” Strike may have to sell some collateral.

The loans are available in most U.S. states and can be taken out under both personal and business names. Strike’s disclosed minimums vary by state and by loan type, with personal loans offered from $10,000 and certain business loans available as low as $5,000. The company said the proceeds can be used for new borrowing, refinancing, or consolidating existing obligations.

Where this fits in a wider lending market

Strike is not alone in offering Bitcoin-backed loans; other participants mentioned alongside Strike include Binance, Coinbase, Nexo, and Xapo Bank. However, the central question for borrowers remains the same across providers: how to access liquidity without being forced to sell during sharp market declines.

By setting a lower maximum loan-to-value ratio (45%) and charging a higher APR to fund additional hedging, Strike is attempting to engineer a path where collateral value volatility does not automatically translate into liquidation. For investors and traders, this shift could be meaningful in managing cash-flow stress—especially during periods where paying down debt remains feasible, but the collateral drawdown would otherwise trigger margin calls.

Borrowers considering the new program should watch two things going forward: how consistently Strike enforces the payment schedule across cases, and whether the company’s higher APR and tighter loan framework materially improve outcomes relative to its first loan product during prolonged volatility. The effectiveness of a volatility-proof model ultimately depends on how well it balances hedging costs with real-world borrower repayment behavior.

The market capitalization of compliant euro stablecoins grew 128% in the year leading up to the end of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) transition period, according to payments infrastructure firm Decta.

Decta said in a Sunday report that the combined market cap of eight MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins rose to $673.9 million on June 28, 2026, from $295.6 million on June 30, 2025. Trading volume rose 43.1% to $67.3 million from $47 million. The number of MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins tracked in the report also rose to eight from five over the period.

Decta tracked eight euro stablecoins that were actively issuing tokens and had market capitalization and trading volume during the study period. By contrast, the European Securities and Markets Authority interim MiCA register lists a broader set, including tokens that may not meet Decta’s activity criteria.

The report found that euro-denominated stablecoins are growing under MiCA but from a small base in a market still dominated by dollar-backed tokens. CoinGecko data shows US dollar-pegged stablecoins at about $300 billion in market capitalization. The combined market capitalization of Decta’s eight actively traded, MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins was 0.22% of the dollar stablecoin market.

From July 1, firms offering crypto-asset services in the European Union generally needed MiCA authorization. Decta’s data sample ends days before the close of MiCA’s crypto-asset service provider (CASP) transition period.

Market capitalization of the top eight euro-pegged stablecoins. Source: Decta

Euro stablecoin growth amid MiCA competitiveness debate 

The report adds to a debate among policymakers and industry groups over whether MiCA’s stricter stablecoin rules are helping the euro ecosystem grow or limiting its competitiveness against dollar-backed tokens.

On April 27, a Blockchain for Europe report argued that MiCA had made euro stablecoins safer but commercially weaker. The report said MiCA’s reserve requirements and ban on interest payments left euro tokens at a disadvantage. 

Related: EU crypto rulebook faces enforcement challenge as MiCA transition ends

The debate intensified in May after a policy paper from Brussels-based think tank Bruegel called for easing liquidity requirements for stablecoin issuers and potentially granting them access to European Central Bank funding. The paper argued that looser rules could help the euro stablecoin market compete with dollar-backed tokens. 

However, the European Central Bank (ECB) pushed back. On May 23, the ECB warned EU finance ministers that expanding issuance of euro stablecoins could weaken bank lending and complicate monetary policy. The ECB also dismissed concerns that stricter EU rules would accelerate digital dollarization.

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Bitcoin (BTC) has further to fall for one of its “cleanest cycle clocks” to signal a bear-market bottom, new analysis says.

Key points:

• One of Bitcoin’s “cleanest cycle clocks” suggests that new macro lows are needed this bear market.
• The NUPL metric is still in positive territory, setting it apart from previous bear markets.
• Analysis expects history to repeat with a higher low on a long-term NUPL moving average.

CryptoQuant: Bitcoin NUPL contains “level to watch”

In research published on Monday, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant flagged an incoming profitability floor for the BTC supply.

The onchain metric involved was Net Unrealized Profit/Loss (NUPL), which measures the portion of the supply being held at a higher or lower price versus that at which it last moved. Its score is currently 0.158, a level last seen in early 2023.

“Smoothed into its 30 and 100-day exponential moving averages (EMAs), it becomes one of the cleanest cycle clocks on-chain,” contributor TheChessOnChain commented.

An accompanying chart shows the 100-day EMA of NUPL slowly trending toward cycle bottom levels below zero.

“Every time the 100-day EMA of NUPL fell below zero, Bitcoin was carving its cycle bottom: late 2011 (low near $2), January 2015 ($182), the 2018 bear ($3,206 in December 2018), and the 2022 FTX bottom ($15,792 in November 2022),” TheChessOnChain noted.

Bitcoin NUPL data (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant

At just above $60,000, BTC/USD corresponds to an NUPL 100-day EMA of 0.215, signalling plenty of room left to drop in order to match previous bear-market lows.

CryptoQuant acknowledged that NUPL has put in higher lows throughout Bitcoin’s history, meaning that even a trip below the zero line may not be essential.

“That leaves two paths,” it continued, describing the four extant zero-line crosses as a “pattern, not a law.” 

“Either the 100-day EMA crosses zero as it did at every prior bottom, or this becomes the first cycle to bottom without it, which would fit the shallower-each-time trend.”

No time frame was given for when the next bottom could occur, with CryptoQuant specifying the zero line as the “level to watch in the coming weeks.”

Bear market reversal signals copy history

As Cointelegraph reported, multiple bear-market reversal signals have come from onchain sources in recent weeks, echoing 2022.

Related: $60.4K Becomes ‘most important area’: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Despite these now locking in, market participants broadly expect new macro lows to enter before bulls regain the upper hand.

Last week, fellow CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler Jr. highlighted other supply data presenting mixed signals over short and mid-term BTC price action. Supply in loss, Adler calculated, could still be two months off levels that traditionally correspond to the end of Bitcoin bear markets.

“Until then, it is more accurate to treat capitulation as a process rather than a completed fact,” he wrote.

Privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain Secret Network is proposing to move from its longtime home on Cosmos to Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum, citing security risks from artificial intelligence, among other reasons. 

Secret Network has been running privacy-preserving smart contracts on Cosmos since 2020, as the ecosystem had strong momentum back then, but the “environment has changed,” the team said Tuesday.  

“The security risk is the part we take most seriously,” it said. “Old code is becoming dramatically easier to analyze … With AI, the cost of attacking stale code is falling across the board.” 

The recent Axelar-Secret IBC bridge exploit highlighted growing security risk from aging, under-maintained code — a risk the team argues AI-assisted exploitation is making worse. The release of advanced AI models such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 has dramatically increased the capabilities for discovering and potentially exploiting code vulnerabilities. 

Liquidity has thinned

The Secret team described Arbitrum as having “deep liquidity, tooling, wallet and exchange support, and thousands of builders composing with one another,” and said “liquidity has thinned” on Cosmos while builders have “drifted to other ecosystems.”

“The tooling you’d want to count on is shakier than it used to be, and a number of projects that once anchored Cosmos have migrated,” it added. 

“Attacks that used to take deep manual effort are getting cheaper as models get better at reading contracts, tracing assumptions, and turning a forgotten edge case into a working exploit.”

The proposal, which requires a governance vote, follows a bridge exploit in June that resulted in the loss of $4.7 million in bridged assets but did not affect Secret’s native token, SCRT.

Related: Secret Network bridge exploited for $4.7M with ‘infinite mint’ bug

For SCRT to endure, it needs a new stable home, and the Ethereum ecosystem is that home, the team said. 

The team is planning a one-time snapshot of SCRT balances on Sept. 1, which will be used to issue a new ERC-20 SCRT contract on Arbitrum.

Dwindling DeFi value locked 

The total value locked in the Cosmos ecosystem is around $2 billion, down 88% from its peak during the 2021 bull market. Comparatively, Arbitrum is the leading layer-2 network by total value secured, which is $17.4 billion, according to L2Beat. 

Secret Network has just $1.3 million in TVL on Cosmos, according to DefiLlama. 

SCRT holders did not react well to the news, with the token tanking 24% over the past 24 hours to 4.1 cents, down more than 99% from its 2021 peak, according to CoinGecko. 

Secret is not the only network to leave Cosmos. In February, privacy-focused blockchain NilChain, built with the Cosmos SDK, left the ecosystem in a move to Ethereum. 

The Sei Network completed a full Cosmos-to-EVM transition in June, closing down its native Cosmos transaction layer entirely and becoming Ethereum-based. 

Stablecoin blockchain Noble also announced it was moving from the Cosmos ecosystem to Ethereum in January. 

Features: The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026

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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued a North Carolina man, accusing him of operating a commodity pool featuring crypto that defrauded investors of more than $14 million.

The CFTC’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, alleged that Trevor Vernon and his company, Argent Capital Management, operated a commodity pool featuring equity index futures, options on equity index futures and crypto.

The agency alleged that from March 2022 to February 2026, Vernon solicited $14.8 million from at least 60 investors and falsely claimed he was a successful trader, even though his trading actually “resulted in consistent and catastrophic losses” for the pool’s investors.

The lawsuit is a rare crypto-related enforcement action from the CFTC, which is angling to oversee the crypto industry while facing questions from some lawmakers about whether it has the resources to police the complicated and rapidly growing sector.

The agency alleged that as part of the scheme, Vernon traded crypto, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which the CFTC asserted were commodities.

CFTC alleges Vernon ran pool “akin to a Ponzi scheme”

The CFTC alleged in its complaint that Vernon made false statements to existing and potential investors, including in quarterly account updates and monthly performance emails.

The agency claimed Vernon’s trading of crypto, as well as futures and options on stock indices, resulted in losses of more than $8.6 million.

Related: CME Group sues CFTC over crypto perpetual futures 

The CFTC said Vernon never disclosed the losses to investors and alleged he misappropriated $3 million to pay investors “in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme” to hide his losses. He also allegedly misappropriated $136,000 for private air travel, according to the lawsuit. 

The CFTC accused Argent Capital Management of failing to register with the agency as required by federal commodities law, and claimed Vernon made false statements to the regulator in January about the issues alleged in its complaint.

The CFTC charged Vernon with seven counts related to fraud, failure to register and making false statements.

It asked the court to permanently ban Vernon from registration and trading, along with disgorgement, penalties and restitution.

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