US spot bitcoin and ether ETFs both turned to outflows on Wednesday in a sign the recovery rally has lost its institutional bid.

Bitcoin funds lost $82 million and ether funds $29 million, SoSoValue data shows. The bitcoin outflow was broad this time, with even BlackRock’s IBIT shedding $31 million and ARKB down $44 million, while every ether fund finished in the red.

The trigger was the Federal Reserve. Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as chair held rates at 3.50% to 3.75% on Wednesday, as expected, but the projections turned hawkish.

The median forecast now sees the policy rate ending 2026 at 3.8%, up from 3.4% in March, and nine of 18 officials penciled in a hike this year. Markets put the odds of an increase as soon as October near 60%. The rate cuts that helped power the bounce are gone.

The price tape stalled with the flows. Total crypto market value has held flat near $2.26 trillion since Tuesday’s close, and bitcoin has eased to about $63,800, mid-range of the climb it built over the past 11 days, per CoinDesk data.

The macro backdrop has flipped. The peace deal that drove the recovery eased inflation fears, but a Fed now leaning toward hikes has replaced the cut bets crypto was counting on.

The next tests are October hike odds and whether the ETF bid returns.

Jack Dorsey’s financial services firm Block rolled out a new suite of AI-native tools on Wednesday, which it says can execute around 15% of all production code changes across the company. 

The new AI tooling, Builderbot, is able to execute over 200,000 operations per day and merges approximately 1,500 pull requests per week, said the company. 

“The best way to think about Builderbot is as the missing layer between AI coding tools and how engineering actually works at scale,” said Brad Axen, head of AI capabilities at Block. “What used to take months now takes days,” the company added. 

The figures show that autonomous AI agents are now able to execute a measurable share of the actual work that ships to production. It is a scaling signal as basic AI coding assistants have evolved into AI software engineers capable of much more than churning out code. 

The AI tool also sheds new light on Block’s decision to lay off 40% of its staff in February, which Dorsey attributed to the rapid acceleration of AI at the company.

Builderbot understands Block’s full codebase

Builderbot is an orchestration layer that coordinates multiple AI agents across the company’s entire codebase. 

Unlike typical coding assistants limited to a single repo, Builderbot understands Block’s full codebase, every service, API and convention, allowing any engineer to make changes anywhere in the company’s systems.

“An engineer working on Cash App can use it to make a change in a Square service they’ve never touched, because the system already knows how that service works,” the company said.

This means that production can also be significantly scaled up with the AI handling the repetitive work, and engineers making the decisions that shape the product. 

“It means an idea can go from backlog to live in front of millions of customers in days instead of months,” added Axen. 

Related: AI agents with crypto could escape and become ‘unstoppable,’ experts warn

Block said it is sharing details of Builderbot because it believes the shift from AI-assisted coding to AI-native engineering is “one of the most important conversations happening in technology right now.”

“The problems we’re solving aren’t unique to Block: orchestrating AI agents across a massive codebase, maintaining quality at speed, keeping humans focused on judgment and taste rather than scaffolding.”

AI agents are doing more coding 

Block isn’t the only firm to use AI agents for its software development. Engineers at Spotify have been using a background coding agent called Honk, which runs a version of Claude via Anthropic’s Agent SDK.

Co-CEO Gustav Söderström said in a February earnings call that Spotify’s best developers “have not written a single line of code since December.” 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in April that three-quarters of the company’s new code is AI-generated.

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed in 2025 that the company now uses AI to write between 20% and 30% of the code powering its software.

Magazine: The end of anon? AI could unmask crypto’s hidden identities

France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI plans to stop certifying security products that do not support quantum-resistant encryption from 2027. 

The rule would affect products used by French government bodies and critical infrastructure operators, where ANSSI approval often decides whether a product can be deployed in sensitive systems.

ANSSI Chief of Staff Samih Souissi said businesses should buy only quantum-safe products by 2030. He said, “It’s not only a technical issue. It’s a matter of governance, industrial planning, regulation, and sovereignty.” The statement turns a long-running warning into a clear procurement test for vendors seeking public-sector access.

2027 becomes a global deadline

France’s move places it close to the U.S. National Security Agency’s CNSA 2.0 timeline. Under that program, new U.S. national security system acquisitions must support approved quantum-resistant algorithms from Jan. 1, 2027. Systems that cannot support the new suite must be phased out by the end of 2030.

The shared date matters for vendors that sell into defense, government, banking and critical infrastructure markets. A product that lacks post-quantum cryptography may soon lose access to major public contracts. The shift gives suppliers less room to treat quantum readiness as a future upgrade or marketing label. It also creates a clear date for budgets, audits and product roadmaps.

Crypto enters the same security debate

The crypto industry relies on cryptography to protect wallets, validators and blockchain transactions. Current blockchains do not face an active quantum attack, but researchers and companies warn that upgrade work can take years. That makes planning part of the security process, not a last-minute patch after stronger quantum machines arrive.

Bitcoin remains a central concern because some older or reused addresses expose public keys. Coinbase’s advisory board has urged Bitcoin developers to begin building a migration path toward post-quantum cryptography. The debate is difficult because any forced migration could affect inactive wallets and coins believed to be lost. A slow migration could also leave users unsure which wallets remain safe.

Blockchain upgrades face schedule pressure

Some networks have already mapped out early steps. Coinbase has said Algorand and Aptos are better placed for a post-quantum transition than many rivals. It also warned that proof-of-stake chains such as Ethereum and Solana may need extra work because validator signatures help secure the networks and keep consensus running.

Ethereum and Solana have both discussed paths toward quantum-resistant signatures. Algorand has tested quantum-resistant tools, while Aptos has an account design that could make upgrades easier. These steps do not remove the threat, but they show that major networks are treating post-quantum security as part of long-term planning.

France’s decision adds regulatory pressure to a technical race. Vendors must now show how products can survive future quantum threats, while crypto teams must explain how wallets, validators and users can migrate safely. The 2027 and 2030 dates give the market a schedule, even if blockchain upgrades follow different governance processes.

Tether is winding down Alloy by Tether and its gold-backed derivative stablecoin aUSDT after reviewing user activity, market demand and wider business priorities. 

The company said it will stop support for the product in phases, starting with an immediate block on new positions and new aUSDT minting.

The move ends a product launched in June 2024. Alloy allowed users to deposit Tether Gold, or XAUT, as collateral and mint aUSDT through Ethereum smart contracts. The structure gave users dollar-like liquidity without selling their gold exposure. It also gave Tether a live test of how users treat gold-backed collateral in on-chain markets.

Users face September deadline

Tether said existing users can still return aUSDT and remove their XAUT for three months. The cut-off date is Sept. 17, 2026. After that date, users who have not returned aUSDT will no longer be able to recover XAUT through the Alloy platform.

The company said Alloy gave it data on demand for gold-backed digital assets, collateral products and tokenized real-world assets. It said it will now focus on products with “stronger user demand, deeper liquidity, and broader long-term market opportunity.” Alloy’s market cap stood near $1.2 million, backed by 14.73 kilograms of gold worth about $2.2 million, according to Tether.

XAUT stays at center of gold strategy

The decision does not mark a pullback from tokenized gold. Tether is keeping XAUT as a core product. XAUT gives users exposure to physical gold through a blockchain-based token, while aUSDT was a separate product built on top of XAUT collateral.

As previously reported by crypto.news, Tether listed XAUT on Maxbit in Thailand as demand for gold-backed digital assets grew. That report also noted that aUSDT was designed to track one U.S. dollar while relying on gold reserves rather than a standard fiat reserve model. Tether has since kept XAUT closer to its main gold plan than Alloy. 

By comparison, XAUT remains much larger, with about $3 billion in market value and more than 22,000 kilograms of physical gold backing, according to company figures. That gap helps explain why Tether is keeping the gold token while ending the smaller derivative product.

Tether trims smaller products

Alloy is not the only product Tether has cut. In February, Tether said it would stop supporting CNHT, its Chinese yuan stablecoin, due to low interest and limited community demand. The company had also stopped support for EURT, its euro stablecoin, after citing market and regulatory conditions in Europe.

These moves show a tighter product strategy. Tether is keeping focus on USDT, XAUT and infrastructure that can support larger market demand. The company has also built Hadron, its tokenization platform, and has looked at new currency products, including a planned Georgian lari stablecoin.

Tether’s product review comes as the company expands outside stablecoins. It has put money into Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, cloud tools and robotics. As previously reported by crypto.news, Tether joined Neura Robotics’ $1.4 billion funding round alongside firms such as Nvidia, Amazon and Qualcomm.

The company has also been active in tokenization partnerships. As previously reported, Tether signed an MoU with DMCC to explore blockchain adoption, digital payments and tokenized asset projects in Dubai. The aUSDT wind-down fits that wider shift toward products with more liquidity, clearer use cases and larger markets.

Stablecoin issuer Tether is winding down Alloy by Tether and its gold-backed, overcollateralized aUSDT stablecoin after just two years to focus on products and areas with stronger demand. 

Tether announced its “strategic changes” on Wednesday following a review of user activity, market demand, and the company’s “broader priorities.”

Tether said it has decided to focus resources on areas where it is seeing “stronger user demand, deeper liquidity and broader long-term market opportunity,” including its gold-backed digital asset XAUT and other core products across its ecosystem.

While stablecoins remain Tether’s core business, the company has shown a growing interest in technology outside stablecoins. Its investments include Bitcoin mining infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and robotics. Most recently, it led German tech company NEURA’s $1 billion funding round on June 11. 

Tether’s aUSDT is an overcollateralized derivative product built on top of XAUT using Ethereum smart contracts, which also reflects the demand for gold-backed and tokenized real-world assets. 

Alloy by Tether allowed users to deposit XAUT as collateral to mint aUSDT, with the value of XAUT locked exceeding the value of aUSDT issued, similar to how some stablecoins or synthetic dollars are created against crypto collateral in DeFi.

Users could borrow or mint against their XAUT holdings, letting them access dollar-like liquidity without selling their gold exposure. 

Alloy by Tether, announced in June 2024, has a current market capitalization of $1.2 million and is backed by 14.73 kilograms of gold worth around $2.2 million, according to Tether. 

Tether Gold remains popular 

The winding down will happen in phases, the first of which starts immediately by preventing the opening of new positions or the minting of new aUSDT. Users have three months to return their aUSDT and reclaim their XAUT until the cut-off date on Sept. 17.

Related: Tether expands robotics push with lead role in NEURA’s $1B-plus funding round

XAUT remains popular with a market capitalization of $3 billion and is backed by 22,169 kilograms of physical gold, according to the company.

Its market cap surged earlier this year when gold prices hit an all-time high of just over $5,300 per ounce. However, it has retreated by 19% since then. 

Tether also bought a 12% stake in precious metals platform Gold.com for $150 million in February, with plans to integrate XAUT into the platform. 

Chinese yuan and euro stablecoins axed  

Alloy by Tether is not the only product the company has shelved this year. 

In February, Tether announced it was discontinuing its Chinese yuan stablecoin, CNHT, citing “evolving market conditions, low interest in the product, and limited sustained community demand,” relative to other supported assets.

In November, it wound down its euro stablecoin, EURT, citing European regulatory issues and a focus on other initiatives such as Hadron, its asset tokenization platform launched in 2024. 

However, in May, Tether announced that it planned to launch a Georgian lari stablecoin, GELT, in cooperation with the government of Georgia. 

Magazine: The end of anon? AI could unmask crypto’s hidden identities

Kentucky has sued five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, adding to a wave of US states launching legal fights with prediction markets over sports event contracts.

State Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement Wednesday that his office filed lawsuits in state court against Polymarket and Kalshi — also naming Kalshi partners Coinbase, Robinhood and Webull — accusing them of “operating unlicensed and illegal sports betting and gambling platforms.”

“Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws,” Coleman said. “These multi-billion dollar corporations and their legal fictions don’t pass the sniff test. As one of our state legislative leaders said it best, ‘If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…’”

Kalshi and Polymarket together recorded $25 billion in monthly trading volume in May, per Token Terminal. Lawsuits from multiple US states risk locking them out of some of the largest markets in the US.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman gives a speech in April. Source: YouTube

At least 17 other states have taken prediction market operators to court, attracting the involvement of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the White House.

Multiple state authorities have argued that event contracts tied to sports are sports betting and require state-level licenses. Prediction markets have argued that their event contracts are swaps regulated under federal commodities law.

That position is backed by the CFTC, which has sued eight states after they took action against prediction markets, claiming they were stepping on its authority.

Kentucky’s lawsuits claimed that Polymarket, Kalshi and their partners are “doing business without a Kentucky gaming license or following state regulations” and that their sports event contracts “fall squarely within the definition of ‘sports wagering’ under Kentucky law.”

The state also alleged the platforms offer users “few or no resources” to identify or seek help for a gambling problem as required by state law. 

A Polymarket spokesperson told Cointelegraph Kentucky’s action “runs counter to the CFTC’s established framework for regulating prediction markets. We look forward to addressing these claims through the appropriate legal process.”

Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick told Cointelegraph that “Kalshi is a federally regulated exchange — the CFTC is our regulator, not the states. Courts have already recognized this, and we’re confident they will here too.”

The CFTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related: Prediction market battle gets closer to Supreme Court

Kalshi and Polymarket, through a coalition of platforms, are already tied up in legal action with Kentucky after suing the state on Friday to claim its first-in-the-country 14.25% tax on prediction market transaction fees is discriminatory and oversteps federal law.

Kentucky’s action comes after authorities in Montana, Nevada, Utah, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland had issued cease-and-desist letters to prediction markets and were subsequently sued by the platforms.

Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts and Kentucky have also chosen to sue prediction market platforms, including Kalshi.

Some of the legal battles have so far reached appeals courts and have seen mixed results. On Wednesday, a Michigan federal judge ruled against Polymarket in its lawsuit against the state, finding that its sports event contracts are not swaps under the CFTC’s authority.

Other courts have also sided with prediction markets, such as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in April that New Jersey regulators could not prevent Kalshi from offering sports event contracts in the state.

US President Donald Trump, whose son Donald Trump Jr. is on the advisory board for Polymarket and is an adviser to Kalshi, said in May that it was “critically important that the CFTC’s exclusive authority over Prediction Markets is maintained.”

Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?

Bitcoin BTC$63,902.35 has recently been flirting with a level that has historically proved a near-perfect entry point for bulls, generating handsome returns, crypto exchange Kraken’s Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo told CoinDesk.

That level is the 200-week simple moving average (SMA), which represents the token’s average price over that period, providing traders with a clear glimpse of the long-term trend while cutting through day-to-day noise.

Twice in the past two weeks, BTC dipped briefly below its 200-week SMA before climbing back above it by the end of each week. As of writing, bitcoin is trading at $63,900, just above the 200-week SMA of $62,358.

That’s notable because, as per Perfumo, closes below this level have been rare, occurring on only about 10% of trading days since mid-2017, and have historically marked unusually attractive entry points for buyers.

“Historically, buyers at this level have gone on to see median returns north of 113% over the following year and 313% over two years,” Perfumo said in an email.

XRP’s push toward $1.25 ran into the same problem that has capped every rally since the spring selloff: sellers waiting overhead. After briefly trading above $1.22, the token lost the $1.20 level on heavy volume and spent the rest of the session trying to stabilize above support near $1.18.

The pullback doesn’t fully undo last week’s breakout, but it does show buyers still have work to do before the market can challenge higher resistance levels.

News Background

• XRP remains in focus after recent ETF inflows and growing institutional participation helped drive last week’s rally above $1.20.

• Analysts continue to watch the $1.11-$1.15 demand zone that launched the latest recovery, viewing it as the line separating a correction from a larger breakdown.

• Longer-term charts still show XRP trading beneath major moving averages despite the rebound from early June lows.

Price Action Summary

• XRP fell from $1.2170 to $1.1869 during the 24-hour session, losing 2.5%.

• Selling intensified during the June 17 19:00 UTC session when volume surged to 128.7 million XRP, more than double normal levels, breaking support at $1.20.

• The token later found buyers near $1.1750 and recovered modestly into the close, holding above the session low of $1.1747.

Technical Analysis

• The loss of $1.20 is the key development. That level had acted as support after XRP’s breakout above $1.14 and $1.18 earlier in the week.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has filed lawsuits against Kalshi, Polymarket and several related partners, accusing them of offering unlicensed sports betting in the state. 

The Kalshi case also names Coinbase, Robinhood and Webull, which Kentucky says helped give users access to sports event contracts.

The lawsuits were filed in Franklin Circuit Court. They argue that the platforms offered markets tied to game winners, point spreads and player statistics without a Kentucky gaming license. Coleman said, “Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws.”