Crypto World
What is a stock buyback? How repurchases affect price
A stock buyback is a company spending its own cash to buy back its own shares. In crypto, it has become the move Bitcoin treasury companies reach for when the premium that powered them runs out.
Summary
- A stock buyback, or share repurchase, is when a public company uses cash to buy its own shares on the open market, reducing the number of shares outstanding.
- Fewer shares means each remaining share represents a larger claim on the company’s earnings and assets, which mechanically lifts earnings per share and can support the stock price.
- Companies buy back stock to return capital to shareholders, to signal that they see the shares as undervalued, and to offset the dilution created by issuing stock to employees.
- In crypto, buybacks have become central to Bitcoin treasury companies: when their shares stop trading at a premium to their coins, issuing new stock no longer works, so they turn to repurchasing instead.
- Buybacks differ from crypto token burns in one key way: repurchased shares are usually held in the treasury and can be reissued, while burned tokens are destroyed forever.
A stock buyback is one of the most common tools in corporate finance, and it has quietly become one of the most important levers in crypto. The basic idea is simple: a company uses its own cash to buy back its own shares from the market, shrinking the number of shares that exist. That reduction changes the math for every remaining shareholder. In the crypto world, buybacks have moved from a background technicality to a front-page issue because the Bitcoin treasury companies that dominate corporate crypto now lean on them when their main growth engine stalls. This guide explains how buybacks work, why companies use them, how they affect the price, why crypto treasuries have embraced them, and how they differ from the token burns they are often compared to.
What a stock buyback is
A stock buyback, also called a share repurchase, happens when a company that issued stock uses its cash to buy those shares back on the open market at the prevailing price. The purchased shares are absorbed by the company, which reduces the count of shares outstanding, the total number of shares held by all investors. There is no obligation for any shareholder to sell; the company simply buys from whoever is willing to sell at market, so a buyback is open to the market rather than targeted at specific holders.
The effect is a transfer of value expressed through arithmetic. A company’s ownership is divided into shares, and its earnings and assets are spread across those shares. Remove some shares from existence, and everything the company owns and earns is now divided among fewer of them. Each surviving share represents a slightly larger slice of the whole. That is the mechanical heart of a buyback, and everything else, the price effect, the signaling, the criticism, flows from it.
A buyback is one of two main ways a company returns cash to shareholders, the other being a dividend. A dividend pays cash directly to shareholders. A buyback returns value indirectly by increasing each holder’s proportional stake instead of sending them money. The choice between them shapes how the market reads a company’s use of its cash.
How buybacks are carried out
Companies repurchase shares through a few standard methods, and the method affects the pace and signal. The most common is an open-market repurchase, where the company buys its shares gradually over time on the exchange, just like any other buyer, often under a board-authorized program with a maximum dollar amount. This is flexible: the company can buy more when the price is attractive and pause when it is not, and the authorization is a ceiling, not a commitment to spend the full amount.
A tender offer is more direct: the company offers to buy a set number of shares from existing holders at a specified price, usually at a premium to the market, within a fixed window. Shareholders choose whether to accept. An accelerated share repurchase is faster still, with the company buying a large block of shares immediately through an investment bank and settling the details later. For most crypto treasury companies, the relevant form is the open-market program, authorized by the board up to a dollar cap, which the company then executes at its discretion depending on conditions.
The authorization is worth understanding clearly, because it is often misread. When a board authorizes a buyback of, say, up to $1 billion, it is granting permission to spend up to that amount, not promising to spend it. The company may buy the full amount, a fraction, or none, depending on the share price and its capital needs. A buyback authorization is a tool the company has armed, not a check it has written.
Why companies buy back stock
The motivations cluster into three main groups. The first is returning capital. A profitable company that generates more cash than it needs to run and grow the business has to do something with the surplus, and a buyback is one way to hand that value back to owners, as an alternative or complement to dividends. Rather than let cash sit idle, the company uses it to concentrate ownership among remaining shareholders.
The second is signaling. When a company buys back its own shares, especially aggressively, it communicates that management believes the stock is undervalued, worth more than the market is paying. A buyback is management putting the company’s money where its conviction is, and markets often read it as a vote of confidence. The signal is strongest when the company buys into weakness, purchasing shares while they trade below what leadership judges to be fair value.
The third is offsetting dilution. Companies routinely issue new shares to employees as compensation, which increases the share count and dilutes existing holders. Buybacks can counteract that, mopping up the newly issued shares to keep the total roughly stable. In this use, the buyback is less about returning capital and more about maintenance, preventing the slow erosion of each shareholder’s stake that stock-based pay would otherwise cause.
How buybacks affect the price
The price effect works through several channels at once. The most direct is supply and demand: a buyback removes shares from the market and adds a large, steady buyer, which can support the price simply through the purchasing itself. When a company is buying its own stock in size, it is one more source of demand competing for a now-smaller supply of shares.
The second channel is earnings per share. Because a company’s profit is divided across its shares, cutting the share count raises earnings per share even if total profit is unchanged. Since many investors value a stock as a multiple of its earnings per share, a higher figure can support a higher price. This is the arithmetic that makes buybacks attractive to management, though it is worth noting the improvement comes from a smaller denominator, not from the business earning more.
The third channel is sentiment. The signal of confidence a buyback sends can lift how investors feel about a stock, independent of the mechanical effects. Put together, reduced supply, higher earnings per share, and improved sentiment tend to support the price, which is why buybacks are generally received as shareholder-friendly. But the effect is not guaranteed. A buyback cannot rescue a company whose business is deteriorating, and a poorly timed one, buying shares at inflated prices, can destroy value rather than create it.
A worked example
Concrete numbers show the mechanism. Imagine a company with 100 million shares trading at $10, giving a market capitalization of $1 billion, and suppose it earns $100 million a year, which is earnings per share of $1. The company has surplus cash and authorizes a buyback, then repurchases 10 million shares at around $10 each, spending roughly $100 million.
After the buyback, the share count falls from 100 million to 90 million. If the company still earns $100 million, earnings per share rises from $1.00 to about $1.11, an increase of roughly 11%, without the business earning a single extra dollar. If investors keep valuing the stock at the same multiple of earnings, the price rises in step. And during the repurchase itself, the company’s buying supported the share price by adding demand. Every remaining shareholder now owns a slightly larger fraction of the same company.
The example also shows the catch. The company spent $100 million of real cash to achieve that arithmetic. If it had a more valuable use for the money, investing in growth, paying down expensive debt, the buyback might be the worse choice. And if the shares were overvalued at $10, the company overpaid to retire them, transferring value from the company to the shareholders who sold. The math always works; whether it creates value depends on price and alternatives.
Buybacks in Bitcoin treasury companies
This is where buybacks have become a live crypto issue. Bitcoin treasury companies are public companies whose main purpose is to hold Bitcoin or another crypto on their balance sheet, letting investors gain exposure through a stock. Their growth engine is issuing new shares at a premium to the value of their coins and using the proceeds to buy more crypto, which increases crypto per share. That engine works only while the stock trades above the value of its holdings, a condition often measured by a ratio called mNAV.
When the premium compresses toward the value of the coins, issuing new shares stops being accretive, because selling stock at or below the worth of the underlying crypto dilutes existing holders instead of enriching them. At that point, the growth lever jams, and the companies turn to the opposite move: buying back their own shares. A buyback becomes most attractive precisely when the stock trades near or below the value of its assets, because the company can retire shares cheaply and increase the crypto backing of each remaining share. The largest treasury companies have authorized buyback programs measured in billions, and some smaller ones have said they would repurchase shares if their stock kept trading below the value of its coins.
The signal is double-edged. A treasury company turning to buybacks is defending its stock and using capital sensibly at a discount, which is constructive. But it is also a tacit admission that the premium-issuance model that powered its rise has stopped working. When a company that grew by selling shares starts buying them back, the market reads it as the accretive era ending, which is why buybacks in this corner of crypto carry more meaning than a routine corporate repurchase.
Stock buyback versus crypto buyback-and-burn
Because crypto projects run their own version of buybacks, the comparison is worth drawing carefully. A crypto buyback-and-burn has a project purchase its own token on the market and then destroy it by sending it to a burn address, permanently removing it from supply. A stock buyback purchases shares and absorbs them into the company treasury, where they are removed from the trading float but not necessarily destroyed.
The difference is permanence and reissuance. Treasury shares from a buyback can be brought back later, reissued for acquisitions, compensation, or fresh capital, so the supply reduction can be undone. Burned tokens are gone for good, with no path back into circulation. There is also a difference in certainty: many crypto burns run automatically on smart contracts with fixed rules, while corporate buybacks are discretionary decisions management can start, pause, or stop. In short, both shrink supply to support value, but the token burn is absolute and often automatic, while the stock buyback is reversible and always discretionary. Understanding that distinction keeps the two mechanisms, which look similar on the surface, from being confused.
The case against buybacks
For balance, buybacks draw real criticism, and the objections are worth knowing. The first is that they can be financial engineering: lifting earnings per share by shrinking the share count rather than by growing the business creates the appearance of improvement without the substance. A company can report rising earnings per share while its actual profit stagnates, purely because there are fewer shares.
The second objection is timing. Companies have a poor track record of buying their own shares at the right price, often repurchasing heavily when the stock is high and flush times make cash plentiful, then stopping when the stock is cheap, and cash is tight, the opposite of buying low. Debt-funded buybacks sharpen the concern because borrowing money to retire shares adds leverage and risk in pursuit of a higher share price. Critics also argue that buybacks can enrich executives whose pay is tied to earnings per share or the stock price, and that money spent on repurchases is money not invested in research, wages, or growth.
None of this makes buybacks inherently bad. A well-timed buyback of an undervalued stock, funded from genuine surplus cash, can be an excellent use of capital. The critique is really about discipline: buybacks reward companies that repurchase cheaply from real surplus and punish those that overpay with borrowed money to flatter a metric. As with the crypto version, the mechanics are neutral; the judgment lies in the price, the funding, and the alternatives.
Buybacks, dilution, and the share-count treadmill
A detail that often gets lost in buyback coverage is how much of the activity simply offsets dilution instead of shrinking the share count on net. Many companies, especially in technology, pay employees heavily in stock, which issues new shares every year and dilutes existing holders. A large share of corporate buybacks goes toward mopping up those newly issued shares just to hold the total roughly flat. The buyback is real, but the net reduction is far smaller than the gross amount spent suggests.
This is the share-count treadmill. A company can announce billions in repurchases and still see its share count barely fall, because stock-based compensation is issuing shares out the other side at nearly the same pace. For shareholders, the important number is not how much a company spent on buybacks but how much the diluted share count actually changed. A buyback that only neutralizes dilution keeps ownership from eroding, which has value, but it is not the same as a buyback that genuinely concentrates ownership by cutting the count on net.
The distinction matters for how you read a company’s capital return. Gross buyback figures can look impressive while net share count is flat or even rising, if compensation-driven issuance outruns the repurchases. The honest way to judge is to track the diluted share count over several years and see whether it is falling, holding, or climbing. A steadily falling count shows buybacks are outpacing dilution and returning real value. A flat count shows the buyback is running on the treadmill, spending cash to stand still.
For Bitcoin treasury companies, this interacts with the model in a specific way. Their whole pitch is increasing crypto per share, so anything that quietly increases the share count works against that goal. A treasury company issuing stock for compensation while buying back shares needs the buybacks to more than offset the issuance, or crypto per share stalls even as the company appears to be returning capital. Watching net share count, not just the buyback headline, is how holders tell whether crypto backing per share is actually growing.
None of this makes buybacks that offset dilution pointless. Preventing erosion is a legitimate use of cash, and a company that did not repurchase would see its holders diluted year after year. The point is to read buybacks and issuance together. A repurchase program means little in isolation; paired against the shares a company is handing out, it reveals whether ownership is concentrating, holding, or slowly leaking away. The treadmill is invisible if you look only at the buyback side of the ledger.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a stock buyback in simple terms?
A stock buyback is when a public company uses its own cash to buy back its own shares from the market. The repurchased shares are absorbed by the company, reducing the total number of shares outstanding. With fewer shares, each remaining share represents a larger portion of the company’s earnings and assets, which is the core effect a buyback produces.
How does a buyback affect the share price?
A buyback can support the price through three channels. It removes shares from the market while adding a large buyer, which is demand pressure. It raises earnings per share by dividing profit across fewer shares. And it signals management confidence that the stock is undervalued. These effects tend to support the price, but they are not guaranteed and cannot offset a deteriorating business.
Is a buyback the same as a dividend?
No. Both return value to shareholders, but differently. A dividend pays cash directly to shareholders. A buyback returns value indirectly by reducing the share count, so each remaining share represents a larger stake. Buybacks are more flexible, since a company can adjust or pause them, whereas cutting a dividend sends a strongly negative signal, so companies treat dividends as more of a commitment.
Why do Bitcoin treasury companies use buybacks?
Because their growth model depends on issuing shares at a premium to the value of their crypto. When that premium disappears and the stock trades near or below the worth of its coins, issuing new shares dilutes holders instead of helping them. Buybacks become attractive at that point, letting the company retire cheap shares and increase the crypto backing of each remaining share.
Does a buyback authorization mean the company will spend the money?
No. When a board authorizes a buyback of up to a certain amount, it is granting permission to spend up to that ceiling, not promising to spend it. The company may repurchase the full amount, a portion, or none, depending on the share price and its capital needs. An authorization is a tool the company has armed, not a guaranteed expenditure.
How is a stock buyback different from a crypto token burn?
A stock buyback absorbs repurchased shares into the company treasury, where they can be reissued later, so the reduction can be reversed. A crypto buyback-and-burn destroys the purchased tokens permanently at a burn address, so the cut is absolute. Many crypto burns also run automatically on smart contracts, while stock buybacks are discretionary decisions management can change.
Are buybacks good or bad for investors?
It depends on execution. A buyback of an undervalued stock, funded from genuine surplus cash, can be an excellent use of capital that benefits remaining shareholders. A poorly timed buyback that overpays for shares, or one funded with borrowed money, can destroy value. The mechanics are neutral; the outcome hinges on the price paid, the funding source, and whether the cash had a better use.
Can a buyback raise earnings per share without more profit?
Yes, and this is a common criticism. Because earnings per share divides profit by the share count, reducing the share count raises earnings per share even if total profit is unchanged. A company can report a higher figure purely from a smaller denominator. That is why analysts look at whether the underlying business is actually growing, not just at the reported per-share number.
Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Company share prices and crypto assets are volatile, and buybacks do not guarantee any price outcome. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security or asset. Always do your own research and consider consulting a licensed professional before making financial decisions. Information is accurate as of July 1, 2026, and may change.
Unlike the previous major bear market in which numerous cryptocurrency exchanges reduced their staff number, the current cycle turned out to be more violent and requires a different sort of reaction.
The latest to close shop, with an announcement earlier today, was BitMart.
BitMart to Shut Down
The exchange saw the light of day during the 2017 big bull market and expanded its services to over 1,700 cryptocurrencies as of today. However, it followed the recent negative trend, stating that it has begun to “orderly” wind down its trading operations.
New registrations have already been halted, as well as deposits and opening new trading orders. A month later, the exchange will stop all trading services. The official shutdown will be at the end of January at 15:59 UTC, when the platform operations will cease. In contrast, withdrawals will remain available.
The company urged all users to close their trading positions, complete KYC if needed, and transfer out the available funds as soon as possible.
Important Notice
After a careful evaluation of the Company’s operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, BitMart has made the difficult decision to commence an orderly wind-down of its trading platform operations. We deeply regret having to make… pic.twitter.com/KX3zczIrAh
— BitMart (@BitMartExchange) July 26, 2026
The exchange’s native token reacted with an immediate price drop, plunging by over 60% on a 24-hour scale. BMX traded at $0.32 before the news went live, and dumped to $0.09 as of press time. It also remains 90% away from its all-time high at $0.619 (CoinGecko data) recorded in early 2024.
BitMEX and Who Else?
Just a few days ago, the Arthur Hayes-co-founded cryptocurrency derivatives platform BitMEX said it will shut down on September 23. The creator of the 100x perpetual swap was active for nearly a decade, but it has fallen out of traders’ grace in the past couple of years.
The crypto shutdowns continued with popular DEX aggregator Odos. The project announced on July 24 that it will halt all of its services at the end of July.
One of its competitors, Dango, made a similar statement on the same day. The self-proclaimed ‘Endgame Exchange’ informed that the team has made the difficult decision to wind down its services, outlining “various reasons” without actually specifying them. It will stop trading on July 29, while the Dango L1 blockchain will halt on August 13.
The post Another Major Crypto Exchange Is Shutting Down After BitMEX appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Strategy says its current capital structure could withstand a prolonged Bitcoin decline while continuing to fund interest payments and preferred stock dividends.
Summary
- Strategy says its current structure can fund obligations through 5.8 years of steady Bitcoin declines.
- Company data shows a $3.225 billion cash reserve supporting preferred dividends and debt interest payments.
- The stress test uses Strategy’s internal BTC Rating rather than an independent credit agency assessment.
In a July 24 post on X, the company said Bitcoin could fall 11.4% each year for 5.8 consecutive years without pushing its company-defined BTC Rating below 1.0x.
The claim arrived as Bitcoin traded near $64,463 and Strategy shares closed at $91.67 on July 24. Bitcoin remained below Strategy’s average purchase price, while MSTR had fallen sharply from its previous peak. The exercise describes a steady multi-year decline, not a sudden crash or a guarantee that Strategy could meet every obligation under all market conditions.
What Strategy’s Bitcoin stress test measures
Strategy’s model uses a measure called BTC Floor ARR. The company defines it as the lowest constant annual Bitcoin return that would preserve 1.0x coverage of net debt and preferred stock over the weighted duration of its credit structure. The calculation includes interest and preferred dividend payments. Its current credit metrics dashboard places that floor at negative 11.4% over 5.8 years.
Strategy wrote: “At today’s capital structure, BTC could fall 11.4% annually for 5.8 years” while the company continued funding interest and preferred dividends. A 1.0x BTC Rating means the measured Bitcoin reserve still matches the claims included in Strategy’s formula. The company uses the calculation to describe balance-sheet coverage, not Bitcoin’s likely future price.
The calculation also differs from a traditional credit rating. Strategy developed the metric itself and publishes it for illustrative purposes. The company does not present it as proof that Bitcoin will decline at a steady rate or that its financing structure can withstand every type of market disruption.
Cash reserve and Bitcoin sales support the model
Strategy held 843,775 BTC as of July 19. It acquired the coins for about $63.69 billion at an average price of $75,476. The company also reported a $3.225 billion U.S. dollar reserve after raising $263.5 million through common-stock sales. As crypto.news reported, Strategy did not buy or sell Bitcoin during that week.
The reserve supports preferred dividends and interest on outstanding debt. Strategy’s current figures place annual interest and dividend obligations near $1.7 billion. The cash balance therefore provides less than two years of direct coverage before the company needs new financing, Bitcoin sales or other capital actions.
Strategy created a broader Digital Credit Capital Framework in June. The plan authorises up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales to build or refill the cash reserve. It also permits selected Bitcoin sales to fund dividends, interest and approved security repurchases. Strategy raised the STRC preferred dividend rate to 12% and approved separate $1 billion buyback programmes for common and preferred securities.
Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for about $216 million between June 29 and July 5. It used the proceeds for preferred distributions and reserve replenishment. The sales reduced its holdings from 847,363 BTC to 843,775 BTC.
Strategy warns its BTC Rating is not a credit rating
Strategy’s metric definitions state that BTC Rating is an internal, illustrative measure. No independent credit rating agency issues it. It does not measure liquidity, solvency or reported financial performance. The company also says the calculation does not account for possible cross-defaults under its debt agreements.
The model uses the notional value of preferred stock, although some securities may carry liquidation preferences above that amount. Its dividend coverage measure also assumes Strategy can refinance existing debt on broadly similar terms without repaying principal. Those assumptions may not hold during a severe funding or market shock.
Strategy’s board must also approve preferred dividends. The company can adjust STRC’s variable rate each month, and it does not guarantee cash payments. Strategy may issue shares, sell Bitcoin, lower distributions where permitted or restructure obligations if its funding position weakens. A 1.0x result therefore does not remove refinancing, dilution, execution or market risks.
Bitcoin and MSTR remain under market pressure
Bitcoin traded around $64,463 on July 26, roughly 49% below its October 2025 peak near $126,000. MSTR closed at $91.67 on July 24. Investors continued to track Bitcoin’s price alongside Strategy’s cash requirements, preferred dividend costs and market value relative to its Bitcoin holdings.
The company’s financing model worked best when MSTR traded above the value of its Bitcoin reserve. That premium allowed Strategy to sell shares and increase Bitcoin per share. A lower market premium made new issuance less attractive and pushed the company to build cash rather than buy more Bitcoin.
The company has also shifted from a mainly accumulation-focused model towards active capital management. Its current framework includes share sales, cash reserves, possible Bitcoin sales and repurchase programmes. Crypto.news analysis noted that Strategy’s market premium, or mNAV, remains central because it determines whether common-stock issuance can increase Bitcoin per share.
The stress test presents Strategy’s view of how long its current assets could support its financing structure under a steady decline. It does not predict Bitcoin’s direction or cover every form of market stress. Future results will depend on Bitcoin prices, access to capital, dividend decisions, debt terms and the company’s use of authorised Bitcoin sales.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) both hand down interest rate decisions next week, two days apart. Bitcoin (BTC) enters the pair of events near $64,000.
Markets expect a hold in both cases. Doubt is concentrated in Washington, where about a third of pricing still favors a hike.
Fed Hike Odds Climbed as Oil Rebounded
The Fed has held its target range at 3.5% to 3.75% since December 2025. A hold on Wednesday would be the fifth in a row.
Pricing still moved quickly this month. CME FedWatch put the odds of a July hike near 38% on July 23. That figure stood at 12% a week earlier.
Oil drove that move. Brent crude settled above $100 a barrel on July 23, its first close above that level since May.
Odds have since eased to 34.2%. A hold, therefore, remains the majority outcome in futures pricing.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
June inflation data had pointed the other way. Consumer prices fell 0.4% on the month, cutting the annual rate to 3.5% from 4.2%.
However, that relief may not last. Renewed hostilities and the oil surge could lift July inflation. That reading lands on August 12.
The July meeting includes no Summary of Economic Projections. That leaves the statement and the press conference as the only output from the meeting.
The Yen Is the Larger Variable for Bitcoin
Meanwhile, Nikkei reported that the Bank of Japan will hold its policy rate at 1% on July 31. Still, the currency is the pressure point. The yen slid past 163 per dollar last week, its weakest level in four decades.
Officials have grown vocal. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said the government was ready to step into the market if needed.
“Our stance has not changed at all. If there is a need for it, we will take decisive action appropriately at any time,” Katayama told reporters.
A hold on Friday sends no clear directional signal to Bitcoin. Rates stay put, and the cost of yen funding remains unchanged.
The rate risk, therefore, sits later in the calendar. Some 86% of 87 economists polled by Reuters expect a hike to 1.25% by the end of December.
Of those naming a month, 53% chose December and 35% picked October. Kazutaka Maeda of Meiji Yasuda Research Institute, who forecasts an October move, sees room for a faster sequence.
“The pace of rate hikes, which until now has been roughly once every six months, may accelerate somewhat due to the need to counter inflationary and yen-selling pressure,” he said.
This matters because of how Japanese policy affects crypto. The link runs through borrowing costs. Investors borrow yen cheaply and buy higher-yielding assets abroad, including crypto.
A stronger yen breaks that trade. The loan costs more to repay, margin calls follow, and traders sell whatever is liquid first.
Bitcoin sits at that end of the book. It also trades around the clock, so it absorbs the selling before equities open.
“Any hint of aggressive rate hikes or intervention from the BOJ could pump the yen, causing a massive carry trade unwind. Remember August 2024? The next unwind could be even more brutal,” Crypto Rover said.
That is why Friday matters more than the headline rate. The signal sits in the Outlook Report and in how hard Ueda pushes back on the currency.
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The post Two Central Banks Decide Interest Rates Next Week: What It Means for Bitcoin appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
The Biggest Pi Network (PI) Updates From the Past Month: Everything Pioneers Need to Know
Although it wasn’t the busiest and most eventful month in its history, the past 30 days have still shown some new developments, features, and updates around the broader Pi Network ecosystem.
As usual, though, it wasn’t without some controversy. Let’s dive in.
Late June, Early July
Pi2Day
The second most important day of the year for Pi Network and its vast community is June 28, known within their space as Pi2Day. It usually comes with significant hype about potential token listings or the announcement of new major updates and developments.
The 2026 edition didn’t bring a listing on a big exchange. Instead, the Core Team unveiled one of the most important updates to date for the Pi App Studio. They introduced PiVerify, Pi Sign-In, and SoloHost – tools designed to make it easier for developers to build applications and for users to access them using their Pi identities.
Pi App Studio Backend Upgrade
About a week after the conclusion of Pi2Day, the team expanded the capabilities of the Pi App Studio. The platform now supports persistent storage and improved backend infrastructure, allowing devs to create more sophisticated apps that can securely store user data and operate more reliably.
Although this was not the flashiest of upgrades, it still represents an important step toward making the broader Pi Network ecosystem capable of hosting more advanced, production-ready apps.
Mid- / Late- July
V25 Deadline
The team behind the project announced a new deadline for completing the next Mainnet migration requirements. Eligible validators were reminded to upgrade to the necessary new version by July 22, when the protocol update v25 was supposed to be introduced.
Although the deadline has now passed, there has been no official update from the team that the migration was successfully deployed. It’s worth noting, though, that their confirmations have been slacking in the past few months, and missing the deadline now doesn’t necessarily mean that the upgrade was not completed.
Pi Browser Refreshed Look
Later in July, the team rolled out a redesigned Pi Browser look with a cleaner interface and improved navigation. The changes make it easier for Pioneers to discover ecosystem applications while giving developers better visibility for their projects.
The team said the most significant improvements are for the overall user experience, but added that the redesign is still aimed at making the ecosystem more accessible as the number of available apps continues to grow.
SLICE Token
Just yesterday, the Core Team said they had completed the distribution of the new Testnet token called Slice to nearly 480,000 participants for Pi Launchpad testing. Pioneers can now explore token allocations, liquidity pools, pricing data, and other Launchpad features inside the Pi Browser.
The team emphasized that SLICE remains a Testnet token intended to help developers and the community prepare for future Mainnet token launches.
Controversy
Scam Activity Detected
The first portion of the controversy section will be dedicated to a reported suspicious activity from one Pioneer. According to data shared on X, a user noted that after waiting for a while to have their PI tokens unlocked, they were not available in the Pi Wallet.
Instead, they found countless failed transaction attempts, which highlighted the growing threat of phishing scams targeting wallet passphrases.
PI Token Dump
Despite all the updates and developments listed above, the project’s native token had its worst month to date. It broke below the $0.10 support level a few weeks ago and charted consecutive all-time lows, with the latest coming on July 14 at just over $0.07.
It managed to rebound in the following days and even challenged $0.10 last Sunday, only to be rejected once again. The subsequent retracement pushed it south hard, and the token is currently fighting to stay above $0.08. PI remains down by over 97% since its all-time high at $2.99, marked last February.
The post The Biggest Pi Network (PI) Updates From the Past Month: Everything Pioneers Need to Know appeared first on CryptoPotato.
South Korea’s largest lender will use JPMorgan’s blockchain platform to support US dollar cross-border payments for import and export businesses across 10 countries.
Bitcoin price is trading around $64,500 to $66,000, little changed over the past 24 hours, and Grayscale just made a prediction that’s splitting the trading community. The firm’s head of research argued the bear market may already be behind us, but the condition attached to that view matters more than the headline.
Grayscale’s Zach Pandl outlined two competing frameworks for Bitcoin’s next move. The first is the traditional four-year halving cycle, which historically allows for deep corrections after cycle peaks. Under that model, Bitcoin could still revisit the $50,000 area before forming a lasting bottom.
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) July 23, 2026
INSIGHT: Grayscale's Head of Research Zach Pandl says Bitcoin's bottom may already be in if the Fed holds off on rate hikes.
He pushes back on the "four-year cycle" theory, which points to a lower bottom in September or October. pic.twitter.com/gJwaeOEmGH
However, Grayscale favors a different framework. It views the recent decline as a cyclical pullback within a longer-term uptrend. In that scenario, a durable floor has likely formed around $60,000 to $65,000. The key variable remains Federal Reserve policy, as a stable rate outlook supports the bullish case.
Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs continue attracting institutional interest, reinforcing the constructive outlook. Still, whether that demand survives the next round of macroeconomic data remains the biggest question. For now, Bitcoin is holding within the $64,500 to $66,000 range while traders wait for the next catalyst.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
Bitcoin Price Prediction: Break $70,000 and Challenge Six Figures Again?
Bitcoin is trading around $64,500 to $66,000, pressing against resistance near $66,000. A confirmed daily close above that zone could open the path toward $68,500 to $70,000. If momentum strengthens, the $72,000 area becomes the next major hurdle. Meanwhile, support sits around $60,000 to $62,000, and bulls need to defend it.
The technical picture remains mixed but is slowly improving. Bitcoin continues consolidating beneath a descending trendline, while analysts are watching for a breakout above resistance. Grayscale adds a fundamental angle, noting recent buyers have largely returned to breakeven. That suggests the market has absorbed much of the recent selling pressure instead of delaying it.
The bull case calls for Bitcoin to break above $66,000 with strong volume. If that level flips into support, price could climb toward $68,500 to $70,000. Softer macroeconomic data would likely strengthen that move and improve market sentiment.
The base case is continued consolidation between $62,000 and $66,000 as traders wait for clearer Federal Reserve signals. ETF demand could keep providing gradual support. However, a decisive drop below $60,000 would revive the four-year cycle argument and put the $55,000 to $60,000 area back into focus. Historical volatility suggests that lengthy consolidation can still occur during established uptrends.
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Bitcoin Hyper Targets Early Mover Upside as Bitcoin Tests Key Levels
Bitcoin consolidating near all-time-high territory is the kind of setup that makes large-cap BTC positions feel crowded, and the upside math at a multi-trillion-dollar market cap is structurally limited compared to earlier in the cycle. Traders looking for asymmetric exposure within the Bitcoin ecosystem are increasingly looking one layer down.
Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioned at that intersection. It is a Bitcoin Layer 2 integrating the Solana Virtual Machine, making it the first BTC L2 to deliver SVM-based smart contract execution. The pitch is direct: Bitcoin’s security and trust model, with sub-second finality and low fees that the base chain structurally cannot offer.
The presale has raised $32.9 million at a current price of $0.0136836, with staking available for early participants. The project’s momentum through the presale phase has drawn attention as regulatory clarity around Bitcoin infrastructure projects comes into sharper focus.
For traders who want exposure to Bitcoin’s ecosystem growth rather than BTC price alone, it warrants a closer look.
The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Grayscale Believes The Bear Market is Over appeared first on Cryptonews.
Tokenized assets grew 267% between June 2025 and June 2026, the only crypto sector to add market value, while the rest of the market declined.
The gain came from new issuance rather than rising prices. Gold tokens and equity tokens accounted for almost all of the expansion.
Gold Supply On Chain Doubled While Prices Rose Just 20%
In a recent report, CryptoRank noted that gold prices rose nearly 20% over the period. So, the price rise cannot explain the sector’s growth on its own.
However, the amount of gold held on chain roughly doubled, climbing from 524,000 ounces to more than 1 million. That gap matters.
“The growth came from issuance rather than price,” CryptoRank said.
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Notably, a year ago, precious metals accounted for nearly 100% of openly traded tokenized assets, according to CryptoRank. Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) held most of that market capitalization.
By June 2026, however, precious metals had fallen to 68% of the sector. The share dropped as more asset classes entered the market.
Note: BeInCrypto’s latest report, Real State of Tokenization in 2026, tracked nearly $60 billion in tokenized real-world assets across more than 7,000 products and 12 asset classes. It found that the market is growing fast, but actual on-chain activity remains far thinner than the headline numbers suggest.
Equity Tokens Arrived From Zero
Tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) went from nothing to 23% of the sector in 12 months, as issuers put shares of major companies on-chain. Treasuries and private credit make up most of the remainder.
By token count, rStocks and Ondo issue close to two-thirds of all tokenized stocks. rStocks lists 568 tokens and Ondo more than 400, spanning single names such as NVIDIA and Apple alongside index products.
Exchanges entered the market later but moved quickly. Binance launched bStocks in June 2026, and Gate followed on July 3 with gStocks.
Meanwhile, meme coins, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and blockchain infrastructure posted the steepest declines of any sector over the same year.
CryptoRank also ranked tokenized assets as the most-listed category on centralized exchanges during the first half of 2026. That pipeline suggests issuance, rather than price, will again decide where the sector ends in 2026.
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The post Crypto’s Only Growing Sector Runs on Gold and Equities appeared first on BeInCrypto.
“As it uses existing rules, it’s going to be much less like a standalone framework,” Lightstone said. “A crypto firm will be treated like any normal traditional financial institution,” adding that “it will still be hard to get FCA authorization.”
For established banks and investment firms already operating under those rules, adapting to crypto may be relatively straightforward. For newer crypto businesses, however, the cost of building governance, capital and custody systems from scratch could prove considerably more burdensome.
That challenge is particularly evident in the FCA’s proposed client asset regime, applying the Clients Asset Sourcebook (CASS) framework, which would require firms to segregate customer crypto assets from company funds under trust arrangements while introducing crypto-specific operational safeguards around private keys and reconciliations.
“The CASS requirements are very onerous,” Lightstone said. “That could encourage those newcomers to merge [with], be acquired by, a traditional firm that’s already subject to CASS and has those controls in place.”
Banking adoption
The prospect of consolidation comes as banks themselves appear more willing to enter digital assets now that regulatory uncertainty is beginning to lift.
“As of today, there is less than 20% of all the banks in Europe [that] offer today any type of crypto services, so it’s heavily underserved,” said Simon Schneider, CEO of Sygnum Europe.
The leading electric vehicle manufacturer reported no changes to its Bitcoin holdings in the second quarter of the year, extending one of the longest uninterrupted corporate BTC streaks.
Meanwhile, the same cannot be said about other major crypto corporate holders, while another one of Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX, which went public recently, made a small BTC transfer, raising some questions.
Tesla HODLs
It’s worth noting that Bitcoin was not mentioned extensively during the recently reported earnings call, but the absence of any transaction was enough to reassure investors that there’s no change in the company’s holdings. This means that the EV maker’s crypto position remains the same – 11,509 BTC, making it one of the largest publicly traded corporate holders of the primary cryptocurrency.
The Musk-led entity entered the Bitcoin market in early 2021, making a $1.5 billion purchase in one of the most influential corporate crypto investments ever announced. However, it later sold 10% of its holdings to test BTC’s liquidity before disposing of 75% of its remaining position during the 2022 bear market. At the time, Musk said the firm needed to strengthen its cash position amid the growing economic uncertainty.
Since then, the company has halted any sales or purchases, leaving its stash untouched. Quarter after quarter, Tesla has reported the same 11,509 BTC on its balance sheet despite the cryptocurrency’s rallies, corrections, new all-time highs, and significant volatility.
This makes Tesla one of the few major corporate holders of BTC whose strategy has remained unchanged for over three years. Musk’s SpaceX has also retained its BTC holdings untouched lately. The latest SEC filing before its IPO revealed that it still owns 18,712 BTC. However, it made a minor transfer in early July, which caused some FUD but didn’t lead to anything more profound.
Tesla Vs Bitcoin Market Cap
While the EV continues to maintain its cryptocurrency positions, it’s worth observing the battle between the two in terms of market capitalization. Data from CompaniesMarketCap shows that they are actually very close to each other, just outside the top 10.
Bitcoin’s current market cap stands at $1.310 trillion, while Tesla closed Friday at $1.262 trillion. The cryptocurrency occupies the 13th position, far below its record of 6, while Tesla remains a spot lower. Meta Platforms and SpaceX are the other two just outside the top 10.
The post Here’s What Tesla Did With Its Bitcoin Holdings in Q2 2026 appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Robert Kiyosaki warned followers about surging US national debt, now near $39.6 trillion, naming gold, Bitcoin, and Ethereum as core holdings in his personal defense strategy.
The author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” frames the choice bluntly, though skeptics question his long-standing collapse forecasts.
The Hard Asset Strategy Kiyosaki Has Built Since 1965
Hard assets are holdings with a scarce supply that cannot be printed at will, such as gold, silver, or Bitcoin. Kiyosaki argues that those assets protect wealth when fiat systems weaken.
His latest post draws a stark fiscal comparison. US debt sat near $9.5 trillion in 2008, just before the global financial crisis, and has since more than quadrupled.
Actually, data placed the total at $39.64 trillion on July 22, closing in on $40 trillion. Kiyosaki claims the government prints roughly $1 trillion every 90 days. The scale is hard to grasp. Spending $1 trillion at $1 per minute would take about 32,000 years, he noted.
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Kiyosaki rejects saving in fiat currency. One core Rich Dad rule holds that wealthy people do not save money; instead, they invest in assets that resist inflation and confiscation.
“…’The rich do not save money.’ Since 1965 I have saved real silver. Since 1971 I have saved real gold. Since 2012 I have saved Bitcoin. Since 2022 I have saved Ethereum…,” Kiyosaki said on X.
Storage reflects that distrust. Kiyosaki keeps gold and silver in Swiss vaults outside Switzerland, citing cases where Washington banned private gold ownership and seized holdings.
Why Does Robert Kiyosaki Trust Bitcoin and Ethereum
The crypto allocation marks a real evolution in his thinking. He long promoted gold and silver as sound money, yet now describes Bitcoin as a decentralized alternative to endless printing.
Its fixed cap of 21 million coins sits at the center of that argument. Ethereum complements the position through smart contracts and its expanding role across decentralized finance and stablecoins.
His price targets remain aggressive. Kiyosaki has forecast Bitcoin near $750,000 and Ethereum around $95,000 following what he calls a major financial reset.
“…When the bubbles go bust I predict gold will hit $35,000 an ounce one year after the gold bubble goes pop.. I predict silver to hit $200 an ounce a year after the bust. I predict Bitcoin will hit $ 750,000 a coin a year after the crash. And i predict Ethereum to be $95000 a year after crash…,” Kiyosaki previously noted.
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Critics push back on the record. He has repeatedly warned of an imminent collapse, and those timelines have often failed to materialize. Hard assets also carry real drawbacks. Gold and silver generate no yield, while Bitcoin and Ethereum remain highly volatile and vulnerable to sharp drawdowns.
His broader message centers on personal responsibility rather than precise timing. Kiyosaki urges people to study markets and build positions rather than rely solely on government-issued money.
Whether that reset arrives or not, the underlying question stays relevant for investors weighing exposure to debt-driven risk.
The post Robert Kiyosaki Shares a Key Revelation on Gold, Bitcoin and Ethereum appeared first on BeInCrypto.
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