Bitcoin price pulled back after touching an intraday high near $65,500 despites its continuing bullish prediction. It’s not just BTC; risk assets softened together. Ethereum slipped about 1% over the past day, while PUMP and ZEC lost more than 4% as early-week momentum faded.

Nasdaq 100 futures also edged lower, too, as geopolitical tensions grabbed the headlines. Especially with some traders having already started locking in profits before the news broke.

Spot trading activity on centralized exchanges remained healthy through June, suggesting buyers have stepped back. This is important as markets can cool without falling apart, especially after a strong run into resistance.

Longer term, some analysts still see upside if fresh catalysts arrive. However, those projections depend on renewed demand instead of wishful thinking.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Reclaim $65,500 or Is a Test of $60K Next?

Bitcoin trades just above $64,000, while its gain sits near 2.5%, showing buyers still have the upper hand despite recent hesitation. TradingView analysis still points to a confirmed bearish break from a multi-month symmetrical triangle.

For now, the $61,800 to $62,000 area has become the first support worth watching, while $60,000 remains the line many traders would rather not revisit.

Bitcoin (BTC)

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If buyers reclaim and defend $65,500, the recent breakdown could turn into a classic bear trap. That would put $67,500 to $70,000 back on the radar. Otherwise, Bitcoin may simply keep catching its breath between $62,000 and $65,500 as traders wait for fresh macro catalysts and ETF flow data.

On the flip side, a convincing daily close below $62,000 would likely invite another test of $60,000. Earlier liquidation waves already flushed excessive leverage, leaving positioning much cleaner. Still, clean books can become messy again if risk sentiment sours. ETF flows remain the market’s heartbeat, and sustained outflows would weaken institutional support.

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Bitcoin Hyper Targets Early-Mover Upside as BTC Tests Key Support

When spot BTC stalls at resistance and macro risk spikes simultaneously, rotating into large-cap BTC exposure starts to feel like a crowded trade with capped upside. That’s where earlier-stage infrastructure plays in the Bitcoin ecosystem draw attention, not as a hedge, but as a different risk/reward profile entirely.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is a Bitcoin Layer 2 project integrating the Solana Virtual Machine, positioning itself as the first BTC L2 with SVM capability and targeting sub-second finality that the project claims exceeds even Solana’s throughput.

The presale has raised almost $33 million at a current token price of $0.0136832, with staking available at high APY for early participants. The core thesis: bring fast, low-cost smart contract execution to Bitcoin’s security layer without sacrificing decentralization, via a canonical bridge for native BTC transfers.

For traders who want Bitcoin ecosystem exposure with more upside leverage than spot BTC currently offers, research Bitcoin Hyper here.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Retraces as Iran Attacks America appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Key takeaways

• Cardano (ADA) traded near $0.161 on Thursday after a slight pullback, while whale wallets continued accumulating tokens.
• Wallets holding 100,000 to 100 million ADA have reached their highest holdings since February 2023, while smaller investors have reduced exposure.
• The upcoming van Rossem hard fork, scheduled for Saturday, could act as a catalyst for ADA’s next move.

Cardano (ADA) edged lower on Thursday, trading around $0.161 after facing mild selling pressure the previous session. 

Despite the pullback, on-chain and derivatives data indicate that investor sentiment is gradually improving as large holders continue to accumulate the cryptocurrency ahead of a key network upgrade.

The combination of growing whale activity, strengthening derivatives metrics, and the upcoming van Rossem hard fork has increased expectations that ADA could stage a broader recovery if it breaks key resistance levels.

Whales continue accumulating ADA

On-chain data from Santiment shows a clear divergence between large and small Cardano holders.

Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA now collectively own more than 25.65 billion ADA, the highest level since February 2023.

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In contrast, wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA have reduced their holdings by roughly 0.7% over the past four months.

The trend suggests institutional investors and high-net-worth holders continue accumulating Cardano while retail investors remain cautious. Historically, sustained whale accumulation has often preceded periods of stronger price performance.

Cardano’s development roadmap also received a boost this week. Intersect, the member-based organization supporting the Cardano ecosystem, confirmed on Wednesday that the van Rossem hard fork will be activated on Saturday following governance ratification earlier this week.

The upgrade introduces new Plutus functionality alongside protocol enhancements designed to improve smart contract performance, developer capabilities, and overall network efficiency.

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The hard fork could provide a near-term catalyst by strengthening Cardano’s ecosystem and increasing confidence among developers and investors.

Futures market activity also points to strengthening investor confidence.

According to CoinGlass, Cardano futures Open Interest (OI) has increased from approximately $422 million on Monday to $445 million on Thursday.

Rising Open Interest alongside stabilizing prices generally indicates that fresh capital is entering the market rather than traders simply closing existing positions.

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Meanwhile, ADA’s funding rate has turned positive, reaching 0.0042%, suggesting traders holding long positions are once again willing to pay a premium to maintain their exposure.

Positive funding rates typically reflect improving market sentiment and growing expectations for higher prices.

Cardano price forecast: ADA still faces major resistance

Despite improving fundamentals, Cardano remains technically constrained. ADA continues to trade below several major moving averages, preserving the broader bearish market structure.

Cardano remains below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.179, the 100-day EMA ($0.208), and the 200-day EMA ($0.276)

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The token is also trading beneath the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.173, while the broader downtrend remains intact below the trendline resistance near $0.207.

Momentum indicators present a mixed picture. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is near 46, indicating neutral momentum without signaling either overbought or oversold conditions.

Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has turned slightly positive, suggesting bearish momentum is easing, although buying pressure remains too weak to confirm a sustained trend reversal.

If bulls regain momentum, the next resistance levels include $0.179 (50-day EMA), $0.207–$0.208  (Trendline resistance and 100-day EMA), and $0.2135 (50% Fibonacci retracement).

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A successful break above the $0.207–$0.208 region would significantly improve Cardano’s medium-term outlook.

On the downside, traders should watch the immediate support level at $0.1500. Failure to defend this level could see ADA retest the June 25 swing low of $0.1382. 

Cardano’s improving fundamentals are beginning to contrast with its still-cautious technical picture. Whale accumulation, rising Open Interest, and positive funding rates suggest confidence is gradually returning, while the upcoming van Rossem hard fork provides an additional potential catalyst.

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The first half of 2026 has concluded. It was a turbulent six months for the crypto market, marked by rapid sector rotations across AI, RWA, stablecoins, and TradFi. As market opportunities shift rapidly and narratives rise and fall, traders and investors are asking one key question:

Which platform can identify emerging trends first while remaining secure and reliable enough to earn their trust?

For over 59.49 million registered users worldwide, HTX has delivered a compelling half-year performance report. According to DeFiLlama data, HTX repeatedly ranked at the top of the industry for daily and weekly net capital inflows. Concurrently, the platform has continued to advance its global compliance footprint and secured prestigious international accolades, including Best P2P Platform of the Year and Best Web3 Venture Capital Institution of the Year, further strengthening its brand influence. Behind these numbers lies a clear trend: an increasing number of users are choosing HTX as their platform for managing assets, trading, and investing.

Spot Trading Nearing $400 Billion as Trending Assets Deliver Outsized Wealth Effects

For retail investors, the defining characteristic of the market this year has been the accelerating pace of sector rotations. Meme coins give way to AI; AI yields to RWA, BTCFi, stablecoins, and TradFi — with some projects delivering multi-fold returns in a matter of days.

In the first half of the year, HTX carefully selected and listed 58 new assets aligned with market trends, spanning almost every high-conviction sector, including meme coins, AI, RWA, BTCFi, and stablecoins. Guided by the principle of listing what the market demands, HTX rigorously vetted projects to curate high-quality assets with strong wealth creation potential. The Chinese-culture-inspired meme coin “老子” surged 573% after listing, while “我踏马来了” gained 412%. In the AI sector, ELSA delivered an exceptional peak gain of 620%, while BNKR and RIVER climbed 162% and 282%, respectively. For many users, HTX was the first venue where they discovered and purchased these trending tokens.

Equally important has been HTX’s first-mover advantage in listing multiple top-tier assets. Following its joint listing debut, Billions Network (BILL) surpassed a $2 billion market capitalization, delivering a 141% gain. After HTX became the first platform to list CHIP, multiple major exchanges quickly followed. Meanwhile, the jointly launched RWA project BTW recorded a peak gain of 388%, while ZEST climbed 131% after listing. By Q2 2026, as the market’s focus shifted toward narrative-driven sectors such as RWA, AI computing, and stablecoins, HTX stayed ahead of the curve by listing RWA leader RE (up 145%), AI computing project OpenGradient (OPG, up 118%), and MegaETH ecosystem stablecoin CAP, capitalizing on every major market trend. HTX has consistently enforced its delisting mechanism, removing tokens with insufficient liquidity or inactive development teams. This market-based selection approach continuously enhances asset quality, helping direct users’ capital toward projects with genuine value and strong liquidity.

The spot trading data tells an even clearer story. In H1 2026, more than 420,000 users traded spot, generating $379 billion in trading volume. HTX now supports over 612 spot trading pairs, spanning mainstream assets, trending sectors, and high-potential new projects. With deep liquidity, fast execution, and robust security, HTX continues to provide a trusted trading platform for users worldwide. Furthermore, HTX launched its “Predict FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches” campaign and continued to host its flagship Trading Championship series, engaging tens of thousands of active participants. These initiatives transformed trading from a simple execution process into an interactive, reward-rich experience.

Beyond Buying Crypto Assets, HTX Earn Turns Idle Assets Into Continuous Yield

A growing number of users recognize that active trading alone does not maximize capital efficiency. In the first half of the year, HTX Earn saw its subscription user base exceed 120,000, with cumulative subscription volume breaking past $4.1 billion.

Stablecoins remain the most sought-after vehicle. Flexible Earn products for USDT, USDC, and USDD delivered maximum APYs of up to 10%. For trending assets, the platform launched 50 fixed and flexible Earn products offering maximum APYs of 20%, drawing over $500 million in cumulative subscriptions from more than 50,000 participants. For high-net-worth users, HTX introduced the VIP Flexible product, initially offering up to 9% APY on USDT. Combining premium yields with flexible subscription and redemption, it enables large capital allocations to achieve greater capital efficiency. For many long-term holders, assets are no longer left idle waiting for price appreciation — they are generating daily passive income.

Futures traders can also keep their capital actively utilized. Following its upgrade, SmartEarn reached a peak APY of 7.21% and has maintained an average APY of around 2.5% in recent months. More importantly, deposited assets can still be used as margin for futures trading, allowing users to earn yield without missing trading opportunities. In addition, USDD SmartEarn offers an exclusive fixed APY of 4%.

HTX Leads TradFi Integration While AI-Powered Tools Redefine the Trading Experience

A structural trend is taking shape in 2026: crypto-native users increasingly want unified access to both digital assets and global traditional financial instruments. HTX has positioned itself as a first-mover in the TradFi tokenization sector.

In H1 2026, HTX futures trading volume approached $500 billion, while the number of supported trading pairs surpassed 350. Within this lineup, the TradFi sector alone generated over $1.5 billion in trading volume, spanning 129 assets across high-growth sectors such as AI, gold, commodities, U.S. equities, ETFs, aerospace, and new energy. In May 2026, HTX took the lead in listing highly anticipated Pre-IPO assets, including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, providing users with a vastly diversified investment suite. Earlier in H1, the platform successfully timed market movements driven by geopolitical tensions and energy constraints, capturing significant volume in cyclical commodities like crude oil, base metals, and natural gas.

Meanwhile, the Futures system has also undergone a comprehensive infrastructure upgrade, introducing new features such as enhanced capital efficiency for Cross Margin, independent leverage for Isolated Margin, Smart Copy Trading, AI Lead Trader Recommendations, Trailing Grid, and Auto-Deposit Margin. These enhancements enable users to trade with greater flexibility and efficiency. For regular users, highly complex strategies are now executed automatically by the product itself. The copy trading division exhibited counter-cyclical growth in H1: the number of lead traders surged 53% quarter-over-quarter, driving lead trading volume up 74%, while follower trading volume jumped 44% over the same period. For users who prefer a hands-off approach, Futures Grid bots recorded $1.18 billion in trading volume in the first half of the year. With Trailing Grid set to launch in early July, the grid will automatically adjust as the market moves, allowing users to trade more efficiently without monitoring the market every day.

In the first half of this year, nearly every core product in the HTX suite received an upgrade. Following app startup speed optimizations, launch speeds improved by over 55% on iOS and approximately 44% on Android, making app opening wait times nearly imperceptible. The platform also introduced professional modules such as the TradFi Market Leaderboards, Tokenomics Displays, and expanded K-line indicators. Most notably, the official launch of the HTX Holo, the platform’s AI-powered trading assistant, has dramatically lowered the barrier to market information. Capable of interpreting market charts, summarizing news feeds, and actively recommending tailored Earn products, it effectively functions as an institutional-grade research assistant embedded directly within the app. Furthermore, a unified Event Center and fully revamped live-streaming rooms were rolled out across the half-year, allowing users to easily participate in platform events.

Global Expansion Continues as HTX DAO Ecosystem Growth and Deflationary Mechanics Advance in Parallel

HTX Research and HTX Ventures continue to serve as the exchange’s strategic watchtower over the digital-asset industry. In the first half of 2026, the team published a total of 6 major research reports centered on core topics such as AI, RWA, stablecoins, TradFi, geopolitics, and the linkage between these themes and the crypto market. These include 2025 Annual Review: Crypto Assets Move Toward Mainstream Adoption, The Rise of Yield-Bearing Currency: How Crypto Neobanks Are Challenging the Traditional Banking Model, RWA Perps: A New Frontier in the On-Chain Expansion of Global Financial Markets, and the Q3 forward-looking report Liquidity Defines Crypto: A New Crypto Order Under Global Liquidity Repricing. The team has not only continued to deliver in-depth research content, but has also built the long-term content brand HTX DeepThink, publishing 73 market insight articles in the first half of the year, along with weekly market reviews to help users establish a clearer investment framework amid complex market conditions.

On the offline front, HTX organized and prepared 17 distinct brand events across the first half of the year, targeting key regions such as Southeast Asia and Turkey. Through industry summits, high-end VIP gala dinners, and regional strategic partnerships, the platform steadily deepened its global brand footprint. Meanwhile, the platform has also won numerous international awards, including Best P2P Platform of the Year and Best Web3 Venture Capital Institution of the Year, further enhancing its brand credibility and industry recognition.

Throughout H1 2026, HTX DAO actively drove the expansion of the $HTX ecosystem while reinforcing its long-term value framework through an open, transparent token deflation mechanism. Official disclosures confirm that HTX DAO successfully completed two major $HTX token burns on January 15 and April 15, 2026. This brings the cumulative total of $HTX burned and pledged to 110.32 trillion tokens to date, representing over 11% of the total token supply and establishing an annualized deflation rate of approximately 5.5%. This persistent mechanism makes $HTX one of the very few governance tokens in the industry to execute a transparent, large-scale, and long-term public token burn strategy. Concurrently, HTX DAO expanded its utility use cases and optimized its community governance framework. This included upgrading membership benefits, broadening yield opportunities, exploring AI × Web3 ecosystems, maintaining community consensus, and fostering developer networks through the Genesis Program, Hackathons, and Grants—effectively connecting developers, protocols, and the community to bolster long-term holder confidence.

45 Consecutive Months of PoR Disclosures, Establishing Security as a Core Competitive Edge

For many users new to the crypto market, security is the top priority, not returns. HTX continuously enhances platform transparency through Merkle Tree Proof of Reserves (PoR). The latest data shows that as of July 1, 2026 (UTC), the reserve ratios of major assets on the platform, including BTC, ETH, TRX, USDs, HTX, XRP, DOGE, and SOL, have all remained above 100%. HTX is committed to a strict 1:1 reserve principle, ensuring user assets can be traded and withdrawn at any time. Crucially, HTX has now publicly disclosed its PoR data for 45 consecutive months, making it one of the earliest and most consistent platforms in the industry to normalize routine reserve disclosures. This framework allows users to view reserves transparently, verify individual assets, and trade with complete peace of mind.

HTX has also pushed forward its global compliance architecture. In H1 2026, HTX advanced its licensing efforts in Kyrgyzstan. Following the acquisition of a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the platform proceeded with local corporate registration and the application process for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license. Meanwhile, HTX continued to align its operations with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) framework, further strengthening its global regulatory foundation.

Evolution from “Trading Exchange” to “Global Digital Asset Service Platform”

A review of the first half of 2026 demonstrates that HTX’s strategic focus extends far beyond mere volume growth. From listing high-potential assets early and maximizing capital efficiency through Earn products to expanding access to global investment opportunities via TradFi, empowering AI-assisted trading, and strengthening global compliance and security, HTX is building a one-stop digital asset service platform spanning trading, Earn, research, asset management, and global investment opportunities.

For users, these developments converge into a tangible improvement in their daily experience: more opportunities, better products, stronger asset security, and more efficient investing. As AI, RWA, stablecoins, TradFi, and other emerging narratives continue to evolve in the second half of 2026, the crypto market will present new growth opportunities. HTX remains committed to anchoring this growth by providing its global user base with richer asset classes, fully optimized product suites, and an expanded international presence.

Markets will always change. But for HTX, the true measure of the road ahead lies in its ability to seize every emerging opportunity while safeguarding users’ assets. That commitment will define HTX’s next chapter.

About HTX

Founded in 2013, HTX has evolved from a virtual asset exchange into a comprehensive ecosystem of blockchain businesses that span digital asset trading, financial derivatives, research, investments, incubation, and other businesses.

As a world-leading gateway to Web3, HTX harbors global capabilities that enable it to provide users with safe and reliable services. Adhering to the growth strategy of “Global Expansion, Thriving Ecosystem, Wealth Effect, Security & Compliance,” HTX is dedicated to providing quality services and values to virtual asset enthusiasts worldwide.

To learn more about HTX, please visit https://www.htx.com/ or HTX Square , and follow HTX on X, Telegram, and Discord. For further inquiries, please contact glo-media@htx-inc.com.

The post HTX H1 2026 Performance Report: Nearly $900 Billion in Trading Volume appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are posing a challenge to the incumbent global card payments infrastructure that is struggling to process high-frequency micropayments, according to a joint report released by payments giant Visa and investment thesis platform Artemis.

The joint report published Wednesday found that traditional cards were built for human commerce with low-frequency transactions, which is insufficient for AI agents, which need infrastructure with near-zero fees and faster settlement to make agentic micropayments commercially viable.

New infrastructure is increasingly necessary since AI agents crossed a key capability threshold in mid-2025, enabling them to discover unfamiliar APIs, evaluate prices and decide on autonomous payments.

The report found that AI agents are initiating a foundational change in commerce, but the current infrastructure gaps are limiting their mainstream adoption. 

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Australian crypto exchange Swyftx earlier this week said that AI-enabled microbusinesses could drive an additional $262 billion in stablecoin volume by 2033, via AI-native payments settled in stablecoins, based on an assumed adoption rate of about 33%.

Machine-native micropayment requirements. Source: Artemis, Visa

Some agentic payment standards are already showing signs of user adoption, such as the x402 payment protocol developed by Coinbase.

The x402 prot processed $15 million in adjusted volume across over 109 million adjusted transactions since it was launched in May 2025. It saw a sharp acceleration in October 2025, when the monthly transaction count rose from 40,000 to 3.8 million, leading to 38 million transactions processed in October alone.

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Cumulative adjusted volume on x402 payment protocol. Source: Artemis, Visa

Stablecoins could stoke machine-native micropayments growth

A single machine-payments framework could support both stablecoin and traditional card transactions, Visa and Artemis said, adding:

“The trajectory points toward convergence rather than competition: cards for proxy purchases inside existing merchant networks, stablecoins for machine-native micropayments, and hybrid flows where both are used within the same workflow.” 

Related: Stripe, Advent offer $53B to acquire PayPal: Report

The report said that a single machine payment framework can support both stablecoin-based flows and card transactions, creating a path into agentic payment flows for card networks.

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It added that Tempo’s Machine Payment Protocol (MPP) now spans both onchain crypto payments and fiat payments via shared payment tokens. Visa said its Card Specification SDK was designed to extend the protocol into card-based agent commerce.

Visa’s crypto division and Stripe-backed Tempo both launched AI tools in March. Visa’s allows AI agents to make same-day payments. That month, Tempo debuted its Machine Payments Protocol, designed to make it easier for AI actors to send and receive money.

Magazine: AI’s power crunch turns Bitcoin miners’ grid access into an asset

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U.S. spot Ripple XRP ETFs pulled in just $107,000 on July 10, a number that reads less like a data point and more like a rounding error for a product complex that absorbed over $100 million in a single month two months prior.

Total XRP AUM across the seven funds has slipped below $1 billion to roughly $996 million, ending a run that once looked like one of the more durable institutional accumulation stories in the current crypto ETF cycle.

The question the data forces onto the table is not whether institutional appetite has cooled; it clearly has, but whether this is a pause in a structural allocation thesis or the beginning of a more sustained withdrawal.

Xrp (XRP)

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The answer matters directly for XRP price, which has so far held above $1 despite both retail and institutional demand drying up simultaneously.

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From $100M Months to Near-Zero: The Flow Reversal in Detail

The deterioration in crypto ETF flows for Ripple XRP has been swift. May 2026 saw the product complex take in well over $100 million for the whole month with money still flowing into the funds week after week.

July has inverted that picture entirely. Several other days this month have recorded flat zero inflows, and July 8 logged $7.29 million in net outflows, one of the largest single-day losses since March 2026.

But the pace of accumulation has decelerated from a structural bid to a near-standstill in the span of six weeks, and the concentration of July’s outflows in a single issuer suggests this may reflect fund-specific redemption pressure rather than a coordinated institutional exit across the board. That distinction is worth tracking as July’s flow data completes.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

What Reverses the Trend For Ripple, and What Doesn’t

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is already settling around $2.5 billion in volume on the XRP Ledger, and roughly $4 billion in tokenized real-world assets now live on the network.

Native lending is coming in the ledger’s next major upgrade, and an Ethereum-compatible sidechain is already live. If any of those use cases generate sustained on-chain demand, measurable in active addresses and new wallet growth, not just volume figures, the network activity picture changes, and ETF demand could follow usage signals back into accumulation mode.

If none of those catalysts generate traction, the asset continues drifting sideways, propped up by its large-holder base while institutional allocators wait for clearer confirmation before adding.

The bearish scenario for XRP price is not a sudden collapse; it is a prolonged grind in which the cold-storage support gradually erodes if ETF outflows persist long enough to signal a real shift in institutional conviction rather than a temporary pause.

The broader crypto ETF flow environment matters here, too. If Bitcoin ETF inflows reaccelerate and macro risk appetite improves, XRP ETFs may see renewed inflows as institutional rotation returns.

The July data is a meaningful warning sign, but it is one data point within a product complex that absorbed nearly $1.5 billion in cumulative inflows since launch, and institutional patience has been demonstrated. Whether that patience survives another month of sub-$1.10 prices and dormant on-chain metrics is the question July’s remaining flow data will begin to answer.

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The post Ripple XRP ETF Inflows Near Zero as Institutional Demand and On-Chain Activity Fall Together appeared first on Cryptonews.

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