Crypto World
Robinhood L2 Sparks ETH Optimism, Saylor ‘Muddies Waters.’ Hodler’s Digest July 12, 2026
Robinhood Chain surge boosts ETH price
The successful launch of the layer-2 network Robinhood Chain has boosted investor sentiment around Ethereum. The newly launched blockchain uses ETH as its native gas token and around $141 million in ETH has already been bridged to the chain.
More than half a million wallets holding ETH are now on the network, which surged past the Ethereum L1 and rival L2 Base over the past 24 hours, with DEX volumes of $877.56 million. The L2 is an offshoot of TradFi trading platform Robinhood, which offers tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, further strengthening the EVM-compatible ecosystem.
L2s have been seen by many pundits as bearish for Ethereum as they take activity away from the L1 without returning much in the way of transaction fees. However even some former ETH bears are now reassessing that thesis. Influencer Ansem wrote:
“lighter and robinhood L2s are sneakily best setup for an eth bull thesis in a very long time.”
Mike Dudas from 6th Man Ventures added that “robinhood chain is the single most bullish thing i’ve seen in eth-land in years.”
Robinhood surges in 24 hour DEX volume (DeFi Llama)
Ethereum is also getting a boost from its 47% market share of Real World Assets, according to Rwa.xyz data. Leon Waidmann, head of Research at Lisk, noted the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Ethereum of $260 billion has surpassed the $210 billion market cap of Ether. Waidmann said this distortion signals that “ETH is underpriced,” as the current relative valuation is lower than in the 2022 bear market.
UK politicians mull permanent crypto donation ban in wake of Nigel Farage scandal
Members of the UK’s ruling Labour party are considering a total ban on digital asset donations in response to Nigel Farage’s resignation from Parliament and the potential influence crypto billionaires had on his policies.
The Guardian reported Thursday that Labour MPs have proposed that a moratorium on crypto donations enacted in March be made permanent after it was revealed that the Reform leader personally accepted millions of British pounds in what he called “gifts” from industry figures.
Farage sensationally resigned from Parliament last week in an attempt to get ahead of an investigation into the donations by the UK’s parliamentary standards commissioner.
“Let me be absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong,” said Farage in an X livestream. “I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money.”
The major parties are refusing to field candidates against him in the upcoming by-election, with his most formidable political opponent the comedy character Count Binface, who has received support from Reform’s critics.
US Bitcoin reserve hits snag as federal agencies debate for control: Bloomberg
The Trump administration’s push to establish a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has reportedly hit a roadblock, as the Commerce and Treasury departments are at odds over how the reserve should be structured and which agency should have primary oversight of the holdings.
US President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order called for the SBR to be housed inside the Treasury Department, while other agencies would assist with asset seizures to build the reserve.
However, concerns have emerged over whether the Treasury has the legal authority to manage the Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, partly because of its volatility, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Commerce Department has emerged as a contender to oversee the reserve, the sources said. The Department of Justice is also reportedly working with the departments to determine legally available options, they added.
Wyden urges Senate leaders to keep dev protections in crypto bill
US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has urged Senate leaders to ensure that crypto developer protections stay in the crypto market structure legislation.
Wyden told Senate Minority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer in a letter to preserve a section of the CLARITY Act known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA).
“Developers who make and release software that allows people to manage their own digital assets — and, critically, where the developer does not control user assets — should not be treated as money transmitters solely because they create or publish software,” Wyden wrote.
The letter comes after certain groups and lawmakers opposed the BRCA. A group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations last month argued it could create gaps in the oversight of illicit activity.
Senate leaders are pushing for the bill to be passed this month.
Trump says he became ‘a big crypto guy’ partly for politics
US President Donald Trump says he got involved in crypto “for politics” and became pro-crypto after seeing how much money the industry was making.
At a press conference in the Oval Office on Monday to announce “Trump Accounts,” an investment account for children under 18, Trump was asked whether the accounts would allow for Bitcoin (BTC).
“I’ve become a big crypto guy only for one reason: If we don’t have it, China’s going to have it,” Trump answered. “I’m a fan, I wasn’t initially, I didn’t know much about it, but, for some of my first term, I wasn’t much involved, and I watched it grow, and it’s a huge industry.”
“I got involved in it a little bit for politics,” Trump added. “I realized there are a lot of people that love crypto.”
In his first term, Trump said he was “not a fan” of crypto and called Bitcoin “a scam.” Since then, he and his family have built deep business interests in crypto, and Trump has faced criticism for his pro-crypto stance and for making more money out of crypto in 2025 than any of the listed exchanges or miners.
Five senators have called for committee hearings to investigate Trump’s policies potentially being influenced by crypto funding from United Arab Emirates-linked and other entities.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $63,762, Ether (ETH) at $1800 and XRP (XRP) is at $1.08. The total market cap is at $2.2 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are DeXe (DEXE) with a 94% gain, Pyth Network (PYTH) at 19%%, and Arbitrum (ARB) at 15%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Bonk (BONK) which lost 19%, Jupiter (JUP) on -18% and Pi (PI) at -16%.
Top Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision
Bitcoin could be entering the latter stages of the bear market, with downside momentum beginning to slow down, according to Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts.
“I think we’re getting through most of the bear market action. It’s still not over, clearly. But you know, I think we’re approaching at least the second half,” Coutts said during an interview on Cointelegraph’s Trade Secrets.
He noted that Bitcoin’s volatility has declined by about 50% compared with the previous market cycle, suggesting the current downturn may be less severe than previous bear markets.
Coutts added that he’s not comfortable making predictions for a $1 million Bitcoin price in 2030 due to too many variables. However he said:
“I’m more comfortable with a forecast in the next sort of two to three years that Bitcoin should get to sort of $200,000 to 250,000.”
Top FUD of the Week
Strategy’s Saylor needs clarity in BTC pivot message to convince investors
Standard Charter’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, believes recent Strategy sale of $216 million worth of Bitcoin to pay for STRC dividends — and Michael Saylor’s manner of communicating decisions — “are muddying the waters for BTC near-term.”
“We think effective communication of MSTR’s new strategy (using BTC to back STRC) is key to reassuring markets that wholesale selling is unlikely; this should in turn support BTC prices,” Kendrick wrote in a note to clients on Friday. “Indeed, if this signalling proves effective, it should remove the need for MSTR to actually sell any BTC by supporting STRC’s price,” he said.
Kendrick said that Strategy’s long-held “never sell” approach had limited what the company could with its industry-biggest digital asset treasury.
“The problem with the ‘never sell’ approach is that it limits what MSTR’s BTC holdings can do — or, perhaps more importantly, what they are perceived to be doing,” the StanChart analyst said.
Kalshi appeals NY court’s rejection of bid to block state gambling law enforcement
Kalshi is appealing a New York federal judge’s rejection of its bid to block officials at the New York State Gaming Commission from enforcing local laws against its sports-related event contracts.
The appeal escalates a growing legal fight over whether sports prediction markets are federally regulated derivatives or state-regulated gambling products. This question has already split courts across the United States.
Judge Analisa Torres rejected that argument and found that New York gambling laws, as applied to Kalshi’s sports-event contracts, were not preempted by the US Commodity Exchange Act. The court said Kalshi had not made a “clear or substantial showing” that it was likely to succeed on the merits.
“Major loss for Kalshi in the nation’s financial capital, with likely knock-on effects in other cases (esp. Connecticut and other SDNY lawsuits),” wrote lawyer Daniel Wallach.
Trader loses $1M after signing phishing token approval
A crypto user lost nearly $1 million on Wednesday after signing a phishing token approval on Ethereum, according to onchain data.
A Scam Sniffer alert on Thursday revealed a victim lost 999,999 USDt (USDT) to an Ethereum phishing token approval scam. Scammers first tried draining a rounded $1 million via multicalls but failed due to insufficient funds, then succeeded seconds later by pulling the exact balance in follow-up transfers.
“The script recalculated and pulled the exact remaining balance,” Scam Sniffer said.
Social engineering via phishing token approvals has become a common crypto scam tactic. Phishing losses totaled $723 million across 248 incidents in 2025, according to CertiK. Scammers trick a victim into giving a malicious actor access to their wallet, taking the form of an innocuous-seeming transaction.
The victim falsely believes that clicking “approve” will only initiate a minor task, but malicious links give the attacker approval to drain funds from the wallet.
Crypto World
Crystal Intelligence launches Ask Crystal, the AI analyst behind every blockchain judgment
[PRESS RELEASE – Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 14th, 2026]
Ask Crystal, a new AI capability inside Crystal Expert, turns any transfer into one clear, evidence-backed narrative, so compliance, investigation, and risk teams decide in seconds, not minutes.
Crystal Intelligence today announced the rollout of Ask Crystal, an on-demand AI analyst built into Crystal Expert. Ask Crystal reads the full on-chain picture behind any transfer and returns one structured narrative, every answer backed by verifiable blockchain evidence. It is designed to support analyst work, to save time and make faster decisions.
Teams that review blockchain activity face a hard reality. Whether they work in compliance, investigations, or risk, case volumes keep climbing. The signals that matter, transfer details, fund connections, triggered alerts, and counterparty history, sit across separate screens. Two reviewers can read the same case and reach different conclusions. The result is slow reviews, inconsistent decisions, and heavy cognitive load on the people who can least afford a mistake.
Ask Crystal removes that friction. Inside Crystal Expert, on any transfer, a single tab generates a plain-language AI summary on demand, and regenerates it whenever the analyst needs a fresh read. Each summary consolidates four structured sections: a transfer overview, a connections analysis covering source and destination of funds, alert details explained by type and detection rule, and prior interactions with a trusted-list check. One read replaces minutes of manual correlation across tabs.
“Across compliance, investigations, and risk, teams are asked to make high-stakes calls under time pressure, with the evidence scattered across screens,” said Navin Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Intelligence. “Ask Crystal changes that. This AI does the reading, the correlating, and the cross-referencing in seconds, then hands the analyst one clear, evidence-backed story. We are not automating the decision. We are giving every decision the full picture it deserves.”
What teams get
- Less operational complexity. Every key signal in one structured view of the transfer.
- More consistent judgments. Context, connections, alerts, and history are interpreted the same way, every time.
- Lower cognitive load. No manual correlation across tabs and alert screens.
- Faster onboarding. A guided, plain-language read makes cases easier to learn from.
Ask Crystal is part of Crystal Expert, the institutional-grade platform used by compliance teams, investigators, financial institutions, and regulators to detect crypto risk, trace funds across more than 330 blockchains, and prove compliance with reports regulators trust. Access to Ask Crystal is controlled through role-based permissions. The feature is rolling out to Crystal Expert customers now.
About Crystal Intelligence
Crystal Intelligence turns blockchain complexity into clear, actionable intelligence for compliance teams, investigators, financial institutions, and regulators. Crystal Expert covers more than 330 blockchains and over 110,000 attributed entities, giving teams the verified data they need to detect risk, trace funds, and prove compliance. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Crystal Intelligence is ISO 27001 and GDPR compliant, with EU-based data governance.
The post Crystal Intelligence launches Ask Crystal, the AI analyst behind every blockchain judgment appeared first on CryptoPotato.
South Korea plans to conduct a 2027 pilot linking tokenized government bonds to its institutional central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure, moving sovereign debt tokenization from a proposal to an official government timeline.
On Tuesday, the government unveiled its 2026 Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half, which includes the plan. In addition to assigning a date for the pilot, the strategy said authorities would study how to make the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) CBDC infrastructure interoperable with other blockchains, enabling a potential connection between external distributed ledgers and the bank’s permissioned system.
The project would test whether South Korea’s wholesale CBDC, designed for use by financial institutions, can support capital markets infrastructure, rather than serving only as a digital payment instrument.
The document did not identify which bonds would be included, the size of the pilot, the participants, or which blockchain technologies would be used. It also did not provide specifics on whether the project would cover the initial issuance of government debt, secondary-market trading or only post-trade settlement.
South Korea expands blockchain and tokenization agenda
The idea was first outlined publicly on July 1 by BOK Governor Hyun Song Shin during a panel at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking. Shin described government bonds as the “big prize” for tokenization and proposed bringing tokenized bonds, wholesale central bank money and tokenized commercial bank deposits onto a unified ledger as an extension of the BOK-led Project Hangang.
The government strategy said the bond pilot would form part of a broader effort to promote a “blockchain economy.” Authorities plan to introduce measures in the second half of 2026 to support large-scale demonstrations and the development of technologies across the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem.
The BOK said that faster, continuous settlement can transmit stress more quickly and introduce smart contract, liquidity and data oracle risks, as discussed in the paper at the ECB forum. It also said Project Hangang’s digital ledger and the central bank’s existing payment system do not yet communicate in real time.
Related: South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaul
In addition to the pilot, the strategy called for broader measures to support the country’s blockchain and digital-asset industry, including legislation covering businesses and stablecoins.
The bond pilot is expected to coincide with the rollout of South Korea’s regulated token securities market. Amendments recognizing distributed ledgers as valid securities registries are scheduled to take effect in February 2027. This allows regulated issuance and circulation of tokenized securities, including stocks, bonds and money-market products.
Magazine: Thai scammer’s $122M wallet, Japan embraces crypto credit: Asia Express
The word bottom doesn’t seem to exist in the world of Pi Network and its native token as of now, as the asset has slumped to yet another all-time low of just over $0.07.
With PI getting smashed out of the top 70 alts by market cap, analysts are trying to determine what is happening and whether there is any end in sight.
New Day, New ATL
CryptoPotato reported yesterday the crash that drove the popular altcoin south to just over $0.086, which became its July 13 all-time low. However, we also warned that there might be more trouble ahead given the rather large number of coins scheduled to be released soon.
That trouble indeed didn’t wait long. Pi Network’s native token is the worst performer from the top 100 alts today, dumping by 14% daily. The worst took place a few hours ago when it slumped to $0.07059 to mark its latest all-time low. PI remains over 35% down weekly. Moreover, it has shed a mind-blowing 97.5% of its value since its all-time high in February 2025.
Popular X user Rizo weighed in on the asset’s poor performance, indicating that there’s more than one reason behind it. Yes, the significant token unlocks are a part of those, as investors who had been waiting for a long time feel more inclined to dispose of a coin that is crumbling.
Rizo added that there’s little to no actual buying demand at the moment as it fails to keep up with all the selling. Lastly, the user outlined the gloomy market sentiment as “uncertainty and cautious investors are weighing on the price.”
However, Rizo remains bullish on Pi Network’s overall ecosystem, which continues to grow, and the “long-term value depends on real utility, adoption, and more apps using PI.”
Silence Is No Longer an Option
Meanwhile, Dr Altcoin blamed the Core Team as it had “at least five years to prepare for this moment. Yet today, it appears completely unprepared for the reality of the market.”
The researcher added that over 775 million coins are scheduled to be released from now until the end of the year, a large portion of which will “end up on exchanges, creating even more selling pressure.”
“Let us be honest: no announcement, ecosystem update or Pi DEX will rescue the price on its own. Unless the Core Team addresses supply, demand and liquidity, Pi could remain under severe pressure throughout 2026. The market does not reward promises. It rewards demand, utility, transparency and decisive action,” Dr Altcoin further cast the blame on the team.
They believe the only path forward includes burning a “substantial portion of the remaining supply,” listings on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, and introducing a “transparent, sustainable, and verifiable buyback-and-burn mechanism.”
The post Why Is Pi Network’s Price Down by 14% Again? Analysts Discuss PI’s New All-Time Low appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Doppler Finance and SBI Digital Finance have formed a strategic partnership to expand institutional XRP finance in Japan.
Summary
- Doppler and SBI Digital Finance will build regulated institutional XRP infrastructure for Japan’s financial market.
- The partnership targets lending, liquidity, collateral management and tokenized assets rather than retail trading services.
- SBI’s broader crypto strategy includes exchanges, stablecoins, payments, rewards and institutional market infrastructure projects.
The companies announced the agreement on July 13, saying they will work on digital asset infrastructure for professional market participants.
The partnership combines Doppler’s tokenized capital market systems with SBI Digital Finance’s institutional network and crypto lending experience. The announcement did not disclose financial terms, launch dates, named clients or a specific product ready for release.
Partnership targets institutional XRP infrastructure
Doppler and SBI Digital Finance plan to support infrastructure for XRP and other digital assets in Japan. Their stated work areas include institutional solutions for XRP, tokenized assets and wider tokenized financial markets, subject to applicable Japanese rules. The services could target banks, funds and professional trading firms.
The companies said institutional demand now reaches beyond custody. They expect market participants to seek systems for liquidity, financing, collateral management and better use of capital. The partnership focuses on those functions rather than retail trading or a new consumer XRP service.
SBI Digital Finance brings lending experience
SBI Digital Finance operates HashHub Lending, a Japan-based service for lending crypto assets. Doppler said the company brings market relationships, risk controls and operational experience that could support products designed for institutions.
Rox, Doppler Finance’s head of institutions, said the company aims to “transform digital assets from passive holdings into productive financial capital.” The statement presents that goal as a development plan. It does not confirm that institutions can already access a new XRP lending, yield or collateral product through the partnership.
Agreement extends Doppler’s work with SBI companies
The new agreement follows an earlier link between Doppler and another SBI business. In December 2025, SBI Ripple Asia and Doppler signed a memorandum to explore XRP-based yield infrastructure and real-world asset tokenization on the XRP Ledger. The partners selected SBI Digital Markets to provide institutional custody for that initiative.
The July partnership names SBI Digital Finance, a separate lending-focused company within the wider SBI network. Doppler has not explained whether the two agreements will share products, custody arrangements or customers. Both initiatives center on regulated infrastructure intended to give institutions more ways to use XRP and tokenized assets.
SBI expands Japan’s regulated digital asset network
Japan already hosts a broad SBI-led XRP ecosystem. As previously reported, SBI companies have supported regulated prepaid tokens on the XRP Ledger, RLUSD distribution, tokenized bonds with XRP rewards and other payment and investment services. The latest partnership adds lending and capital-market infrastructure to that wider activity.
SBI has also expanded its exchange and institutional market reach. The group moved to acquire Bitbank after SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan. Separately, SBI led EDX Markets’ $76 million funding round for institutional trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure.
Related activity has also drawn XRP-focused firms toward Japan. As reported by crypto.news, Evernorth recently opened a Japanese-language presence while pursuing a planned public XRP treasury. SBI committed $200 million to the proposed transaction, although Evernorth did not announce a new Japanese license, office or product.
The Doppler partnership remains at the development stage. Neither company identified lending rates, supported assets beyond XRP, collateral terms, custody providers or an expected launch window. Future announcements will need to define the services institutions can use and the regulatory approvals required in Japan.
Key takeaways
- Solana (SOL) has fallen below its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), signaling increasing bearish pressure.
- The MACD has turned bearish, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has dropped below the neutral level.
- Key support sits at $67.50, the level that previously sparked a rebound in late June.
Solana (SOL) remained under pressure on Tuesday, extending its recent weakness as the token slipped below its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), a technical development that points to growing bearish momentum.
At the time of writing, SOL was trading below $75.00, remaining beneath both the 50-day EMA at $76.63 and the 200-day EMA at $97.65. The inability to reclaim these key technical levels suggests sellers continue to dominate the market.
Momentum indicators turn increasingly bearish
Technical indicators are signaling that bullish momentum is fading. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has crossed below its signal line, producing fresh bearish histogram bars that indicate strengthening downward momentum.
Meanwhile, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has declined to 46, slipping below the neutral 50 mark. This suggests buying pressure is weakening while sellers gradually regain control of the market.
Together, these indicators reinforce the likelihood of continued downside unless market sentiment improves.
The most important support for Solana currently lies around $67.50. This horizontal support level previously triggered a notable rebound in late June and could once again attract buyers if selling pressure intensifies.
A decisive break below $67.50 would likely increase the risk of a deeper correction and could encourage additional bearish positioning.
For Solana to improve its short-term outlook, buyers must first reclaim the 50-day EMA near $76.63, which now serves as immediate resistance.
A sustained breakout above this level could open the door for a move toward the 200-day EMA around $97.65, where stronger selling pressure is expected to emerge.
Solana remains technically vulnerable after falling below its 50-day EMA, with bearish momentum indicators suggesting sellers remain in control. As long as SOL trades beneath its major moving averages, the risk of further downside persists.
Traders will be closely watching the $67.50 support level, while any meaningful recovery will depend on the token reclaiming the 50-day EMA and restoring bullish momentum.
US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to outflows, reversing the previous week’s short-lived return to positive flows.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $424.66 million in net outflows on Monday, marking their biggest single-day withdrawal in July so far, according to SoSoValue data.
The latest outflow reversed last week’s $197.4 million new inflows, which had briefly ended an eight-week run of weekly withdrawals and raised hopes that institutional demand was recovering.
The renewed selling leaves ETF demand fragile after a record outflow month in June, even as some onchain data show large Bitcoin holders accumulating.
Bitcoin ETFs log $5.8 billion in net outflows this year
US spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded roughly $5.8 billion in net outflows so far this year, with the latest withdrawals adding to a broader period of selling pressure.
June marked the largest monthly net outflow in history, with investors pulling $4.51 billion from the funds.
Daily flows in US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs since July 1. Source: SoSoValue
Despite ongoing selling pressure, spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to hold significant investor assets, with total net assets standing at $74.79 billion and cumulative net inflows at $50.85 billion as of Monday.
Related: Lyn Alden says Bitcoin needs no savior as Strategy sells $216M of BTC
The funds first crossed the $50 billion cumulative inflow milestone in July 2025, about 18 months after launching in January 2024.
Bitcoin ETF reversal adds to uncertainty over market bottom
The failure of US spot Bitcoin ETFs to extend last week’s inflow streak adds to signs that investors remain cautious, with market observers divided over whether Bitcoin’s downturn is nearing an end or whether more losses are ahead.
CryptoQuant analyst Sunny Mom pointed to mixed signals in the market, with nearly $10 billion in outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs since Oct. 11, 2025, suggesting weak institutional demand, while the number of new Bitcoin whales has continued to grow.
Source: Kyledoops
“A definitive, broad-based market bottom has yet to be confirmed,” Sunny Mom wrote in an update on Thursday, noting that whale accumulation could help limit further downside but does not yet signal a sustained recovery.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me
Bitcoin traded at $62,589 at publishing time, roughly 30% below its level at the start of the year, according to CoinGecko data.
Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision
An AI-driven memory crisis is reshaping the global phone market, and Apple stock sits at a record high. Global smartphone shipments fell 6.7% last quarter, yet Apple grew 15.3% and posted record shipments.
The reason is cost. Memory chips now sell for nearly triple last year’s price, so budget phone makers raised prices and lost buyers, while premium brands with locked-in supply pulled away.
How AI’s Memory Grab Is Squeezing Phones
The squeeze starts in AI data centers. Hyperscalers are buying huge volumes of memory to train and run AI models, and that demand has drained supply for phones and PCs.
Want more insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Newsletter here.
Meanwhile, the biggest chip suppliers have chased profit. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron steered output toward high-margin AI memory, leaving less for consumer devices.
As a result, memory costs have climbed close to 300% over the past year, according to IDC or the International Data Corporation. Memory now makes up more than 65% of the parts cost in a cheap phone.
That shift has hit low-cost vendors hardest. Apple already passed some of the pain to buyers, raising Mac and iPad prices in June while holding iPhone prices steady.
A Smartphone Market Split In Two
The downturn is not uniform. IDC says the memory crisis has split the market, rewarding scale and premium supply while punishing cheap, high-volume phones.
The gap is stark. Apple and Samsung were the only top-five vendors to grow, up 15.3% and 8.1%. Xiaomi fell 26.3%, vivo dropped 19.4%, and OPPO slid 17.5%.
In China, Huawei and Apple stood alone with roughly 15%+ growth each, as rivals raised prices and lost hesitant buyers. Budget brands leaned on older 4G models to defend low prices as government subsidies faded.
The pattern is consistent. When the price gap narrows, buyers trade up to trusted brands rather than upgrade on the cheap.
Why The Squeeze Lifts Apple Stock
For Apple, a smaller market has meant a bigger lead. It is on track for a record 22% annual market share. Apple stock also hit an all-time high on July 13, closing at $317.31 after an intraday peak of $323.45, worth about $4.7 trillion.
Big investors positioned early. Institutions own about 81% of Apple and net-added roughly 1.24 billion shares last quarter, before its China rebound fully showed in the data.
Apple is also defending margins at the source. It is in talks with Chinese suppliers CXMT and YMTC to source memory for iPhones sold in China, which would ease the cost hit at home.
Even so, the win is relative, not absolute. The memory crisis lifts Apple against weaker rivals, but it still raises Apple’s own chip costs. So far the company has offset that by charging more, from higher Mac and iPad prices to an expected iPhone increase.
That defense has a limit. If Apple keeps raising prices, even loyal buyers may hold off, which would slow the growth now lifting the stock. The memory shortage could last into 2028, so those cost pressures are unlikely to ease soon.
The next test is close. Apple reports earnings on July 30, and that print will show whether premium demand can hold as the squeeze drags on.
The post Apple Stock Hits a Record as the AI Memory Crisis Guts Cheap Phones appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has increased its exposure to SpaceX with purchases worth about $52.1 million during the week ended July 10, while cutting positions in semiconductor, streaming and genomics companies as it continued adjusting its portfolios.
Summary
- Ark Invest bought about $52.1 million worth of SpaceX shares while adding to positions in Coinbase, Circle and several AI and healthcare companies.
- The firm reduced holdings in AMD, Roku, Deere and multiple genomics stocks as it continued rebalancing its ETF portfolios.
- The latest purchases extend Ark’s recent strategy of increasing its SpaceX position after earlier buying during the stock’s post IPO decline.
According to Ark Invest’s latest weekly trading disclosure, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) received the firm’s largest allocation by value across multiple exchange-traded funds.
The investment manager also bought shares of Eli Lilly, Meta Platforms, X-Energy, Coinbase Global and Circle Internet Group, alongside several healthcare, artificial intelligence and defence-related companies.
Across individual funds, Ark added SpaceX shares to ARKK, ARKQ, ARKW and ARKX. The latest filings also showed fresh purchases of X-Energy across three ETFs, while Block, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Oklo, Pony AI, Kodiak AI and WeRide were among other additions. In healthcare, the firm increased positions in companies including Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics, Prime Medicine, Alamar Biosciences, Compass Pathways, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals.
Ark continues buying SpaceX after earlier dip purchases
The latest trades extend Ark’s recent buying activity in SpaceX after several purchases made during the stock’s post-listing decline.
Last month, the investment firm bought about $32.5 million worth of SpaceX shares after the stock dropped more than 16% from its post-IPO peak. The purchase followed an even larger investment of roughly $444.3 million made across four ETFs on the company’s Nasdaq debut on June 12.
Ark had also held exposure to SpaceX before its public listing through the ARK Venture Fund, where the aerospace company ranked as the fund’s largest holding. Earlier this month, Cathie Wood told Fox Business that SpaceX held a “10-year lead” over competitors, while Ark’s internal valuation models projected a base-case enterprise value of about $2.5 trillion by 2030 and a bull-case estimate of approximately $3.1 trillion.
Meanwhile, the latest portfolio changes showed the firm reducing holdings in Advanced Micro Devices, Roku, Robinhood Markets, Deere, and Iridium Communications. The disclosures also listed sales of several genomics companies, including Natera, Illumina, Twist Bioscience, 10x Genomics and BioNTech, alongside smaller reductions in Personalis, Absci and Strata Critical Medical.
The changes come ahead of the second-quarter earnings season, with the latest disclosures indicating continued portfolio rebalancing across Ark’s actively managed funds.
The recent buying activity also follows a pattern seen in previous weeks. On June 26, Ark increased its holdings in Coinbase, Circle, Bullish, and Robinhood after all four stocks declined during the trading session. Earlier in June, the firm also purchased about $18.4 million worth of Coinbase shares after the crypto exchange had fallen nearly 13% over the preceding month.
Ark manages its exchange-traded funds under a policy that limits any single holding to no more than 10% of a portfolio. The firm periodically adjusts positions to keep those weightings within its target allocations as share prices change.
ETH and XRP traders have become notably more optimistic, with market intelligence firm Santiment reporting the highest levels of fear of missing out (FOMO) for both assets in the past five weeks.
The change in tune has come even with prices struggling to build sustained momentum, raising the possibility that bullish sentiment may be running ahead of market performance.
XRP Leads Sentiment Spike While BTC Stays Balanced
According to a July 13 X post by Santiment, XRP’s bull-to-bear ratio sat at 3.02, meaning that there were more than three positive posts online for every negative one. Ethereum wasn’t far behind at 2.31, placing it in what the analytics platform described as “slight FOMO territory.” As for Bitcoin (BTC), it posted a much lower 1.40, suggesting that traders were relatively neutral about it.
Both BTC and ETH opened relatively strong on Monday but faded as the day went on, with Santiment pointing out that crowds tend to get loud at the wrong moment.
“Crypto typically moves opposite to what the crowd is loudly expecting,” the firm wrote. “When traders get too bullish on XRP or ETH while prices are already dipping, it can create short-term downside risk or at least slow the rebound.”
However, it argued that Bitcoin’s flatter reading may give it more room for a rally since the crowd hasn’t fully bought into the “higher prices next” trade yet. This assessment was echoed by trader Xaif Crypto, who also argued that BTC’s calmer sentiment “means more room to run,” while the heavier optimism surrounding XRP and ETH could limit their immediate recovery.
Looking at the price actions of the three assets, XRP had slipped below $1.08, a resistance level highlighted by analyst Cryptorphic, and was trading around $1.07 at the time of writing, a roughly 5% drop in the last seven days and almost 7% over the past month. According to the analyst, the token is quite vulnerable as long as it trades beneath $1.08, with even lower prices seeming likely.
On its part, ETH has held up better and was trading closer to $1,800 than $1,700, having gained a modest 1% over one week and more than 6% in the last 30 days. It did move briefly above $1,800 over the weekend before pulling back, although several market watchers have expressed optimism that the current level could see the asset push up to $2,500.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin dipped slightly in the last day after starting July rather strongly when it rebounded from around $57,700 to $64,000. It is currently changing hands below $63,000, with wallets holding between 10,000 and 100,000 BTC adding 11,000 BTC in the last week, suggesting that dip demand hasn’t dried up despite weeks of choppy trading.
Optimism Faces Mixed On-Chain and ETF Signals
While traders have become excited about XRP, the asset has had to contend with cooling institutional and whale activity, marked by spot XRP ETFs recording their first week of net outflows in more than 2 months.
Furthermore, on-chain data also showed a significant drop in XRP transactions of more than $1 million, which have gone from 70 to only 2 in about a week, while wallet creation on the XRP Ledger has also slowed compared with earlier in the year.
The post XRP and ETH Traders Turn Bullish as FOMO Surges to 5-Week High: Santiment appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Upbit will add Derive’s DRV token to its Korean won, Bitcoin and Tether markets on July 14.
Summary
- Upbit adds DRV trading against KRW, BTC and USDT, expanding Derive’s access across South Korea.
- Derive migrated LYRA holders into DRV and now operates an onchain options and perpetuals exchange.
- DRV’s total supply now stands at 1.5 billion after a previously proposed strategic token mint.
Trading is scheduled to open at 17:00 Korea Standard Time, giving the onchain derivatives protocol access to South Korean traders. The details appear in Upbit’s official DRV listing notice.
The exchange said deposits and withdrawals will use the Ethereum network. Upbit also applies temporary limits on buy orders, low-priced sell orders and certain order types after new listings. These controls are designed to manage sharp price moves during the opening period.
DRV enters South Korea through three Upbit markets
The KRW pair gives local users a fiat market for DRV. The BTC and USDT pairs add two crypto-based routes for traders who already hold digital assets on the platform. Together, the markets broaden DRV access beyond its listings on international exchanges.
Bithumb also added DRV to its Korean won market on July 14, giving the token listings on two major South Korean platforms on the same day. The combined rollout increases local access, although trading volume and prices can change quickly after new markets open.
Derive grew from the former Lyra protocol
Derive previously operated as Lyra Finance, an onchain options protocol launched within the Synthetix ecosystem. The project adopted the Derive name in 2024 and moved its governance and utility token from LYRA to DRV. Eligible balances converted at a 1:1 ratio after a May 2024 snapshot.
DRV launched in January 2025. The protocol now combines options, perpetual futures and structured trading products through a self-custodial exchange. Derive runs an Ethereum rollup built with the OP Stack and uses a risk engine designed for portfolio margin and onchain settlement.
DRV supports governance, staking and token buybacks
DRV holders can stake the token to receive governance rights and delegate voting power. Derive also uses token incentives for trading and liquidity programs. Its token documentation states that 35% of protocol revenue funds DRV buybacks under the protocol’s current token funding model.
The token’s total supply now stands at 1.5 billion DRV. That figure reflects a 500 million-token strategic mint proposed in September 2025 to fund institutional partnerships, market-maker incentives and development. The earlier plan represented a 50% increase from the original one billion-token supply.
Listing follows Derive’s wider exchange expansion
The Upbit launch comes after DRV reached Coinbase in May 2026, giving the asset access to a large regulated U.S. trading platform. The Korean listings add direct won markets and place the token before one of Asia’s most active retail trading communities.
As previously reported, Synthetix proposed acquiring Derive through a $27 million token swap in May 2025. The plan would have exchanged 27 DRV for one SNX under lockup and vesting terms. The parties later abandoned the proposed merger, leaving Derive independent.
Upbit has continued adding crypto assets throughout 2026. As reported by crypto.news, the exchange introduced nine tokens to its BTC and USDT markets in June. Other Upbit listings have produced rapid changes in volume and price, but early gains have not always continued.
The DRV listing may improve liquidity by connecting fiat and crypto markets. Traders will also monitor Derive’s protocol volume, token use and supply release schedule. Those measures will show whether the Korean rollout creates sustained activity after the initial listing period.
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