By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
The cryptocurrency bull run has stalled since bitcoin (BTC) hit a record high above $110,000 last month. However, corporate adoption continues at a brisk pace.
Shares in Norway-based crypto exchange Norwegian Block Exchange surged over 100% early today after the company disclosed the purchase of six BTC, worth $633K at current prices, with plans to boost holdings to 10 BTC by the end of the month.
The Nasdaq-listed Classover Holdings Inc, an educational technology company with a current market capitalization of $63 million, has entered into a securities purchase agreement with Solana Growth Ventures LLC for up to $500 million in senior secured convertible notes. According to Investing.com, up to 80% of the proceeds will be allocated to purchase Solana’s native token SOL.
Ripple’s enterprise-grade stablecoin RLUSD secured regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority, opening doors for the stablecoin to support the Dubai Land Department’s blockchain initiative to tokenize real estate title deeds on the XRP Ledger.
In other news, Robinhood completed a $200 million all-cash acquisition of the Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp, expanding its footprints in Europe.
Speaking of market activity, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $268 million on Monday, marking the third consecutive day of outflows. Options tied to BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) continued to show a bias for put options, indicating downside fears, according to data source Market Chameleon. Ethereum spot ETFs recorded a net inflow of $78.17 million, extending their streak to 11 consecutive days, according to Farside Investors.
In traditional markets, the anti-risk Japanese yen slid during the Asian hours after an ex-Bank of Japan official said the central bank would stop tapering the amount of its Japanese government bond purchases in a plan for the next fiscal year, when officials gather this month.
The dollar index continued to remain under pressure on growing trade uncertainty and rising concerns in the bond market over the U.S. deficit. Monday’s ISM manufacturing surveys delivered a negative surprise, puncturing the U.S. resilience story.
According to ING, the focus today will be on April’s JOLTS report, where job openings and layoffs will be in the spotlight. Durable goods orders are also expected to have taken a hit in April. “Another round of soft data, particularly in the labour market, can push the dollar back to its April lows,” ING said.
Meanwhile, newsletter service LondonCryptoClub flagged Aptos Labs CEO Avery Ching’s testimony at a U.S. House hearing on “The Future of Digital Assets,” led by the Agriculture Committee. Stay Alert!
What to Watch
- Crypto
- June 3, 1 p.m.: The Shannon hard fork network upgrade will get activated on the Pocket Network (POKT).
- June 4, 10 a.m.: U.S. House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework.” Livestream link.
- June 6: Sia (SC) is set to activate Phase 1 of its V2 hard fork, the largest upgrade in the project’s history. Phase 2 will get activated on July 6.
- June 9, 1-5 p.m.: U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force roundtable on “DeFi and the American Spirit”
- June 10, 10 a.m.: U.S. House Final Services Committee hearing for Markup of Various Measures, including the crypto market structure bill, i.e. the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
- June 16 (market open): 21Shares executes 3-for-1 share split for ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB); ticker and NAV remain unchanged.
- Macro
- June 3: South Koreans will vote to choose a new president following the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was dismissed after briefly declaring martial law in December 2024.
- June 3, 10 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases April U.S. labor market data.
- Job Openings Est. 7.10M vs. Prev. 7.192M
- Job Quits Prev. 3.332M
- June 3, 1 p.m.: Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook will deliver a speech on economic outlook at the Peter McColough Series on International Economics in New York. Livestream link.
- June 4, 12:01 a.m.: U.S. import duties on steel and aluminum will increase from 25% to 50%.
- June 4, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases (Final) May U.S. data on manufacturing and services activity.
- Composite PMI Est. 52.1 vs. Prev. 50.6
- Services PMI Est. 52.3 vs. Prev. 50.8
- June 4, 10 a.m.: The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) releases May U.S. services sector data.
- Services PMI Est. Est. 52 vs. Prev. 51.6
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
- Governance votes & calls
- Unlocks
- June 5: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 2.95% of its circulating supply worth $67.99 million.
- June 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.79% of its circulating supply worth $55.53 million.
- June 13: Immutable (IMX) to unlock 1.33% of its circulating supply worth $14.02 million.
- June 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 3.79% of its circulating supply worth $17.87 million.
- June 15: Sei (SEI) to unlock 1.04% of its circulating supply worth $11.16 million.
- Token Launches
- June 16: Advised deadline to unstake stMATIC as part of Lido on Polygon’s sunsetting process ends.
- June 26: Coinbase to delist Helium Mobile (MOBILE), Render (RNDR), Ribbon Finance (RBN), & Synapse (SYN)
Conferences
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
- Sky (formerly MakerDAO) rolled out its staking feature on Wednesday, receiving $553 million in deposits.
- Those depositors are are currently receiving 16.48% APY on their deposits although the figure was at 38.3% in the hours after launch.
- Yields are rewarded in the USDS stablecoins and are based on the performances of the protocol. Yield is also tied to the Sky Savings Rate (SSR), which reflects the protocol’s operational income.
- The SKY token also experienced a period of upside, rising 16% from $0.065 to $0.074 in the past 24 hours.
- Trading volume, however, remains fairly muted at $7 million — indicating that a large portion of holders are staking and not trading, paving the way for a lack of sell pressure.
Derivatives Positioning
- HYPE, PEPE, ETH, BNB and TON have seen the most increase in the perpetual futures open interest in the past 24 hours.
- BTC’s late Friday upswing from $103,600 to over $106k was marked by a decline in perpetual futures open interest. The divergence, coupled with low spot volumes, raises question mark on the sustainability of gains.
- Open interest in the CME futures has dropped to 153.6K BTC from the recent high of 162K BTC, with the annualized one-month basis pulling back to 6.5% in a sign of pause in institutional demand. ETH basis has also pulled back to 8.7% from recent highs over 10%.
- On Deribit, a clear call or bullish options bias is seen only in the March 2021 expiry, according to risk reversals tracked by Amberdata. ETH options are slightly more optimistic about price prospects.
Market Movements
- BTC is up 0.33% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $105,291.98 (24hrs: -0.78%)
- ETH is up 3.03% at $2,618.49 (24hrs: +5.29%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 1.71% at 3,117.05 (24hrs: +2.92%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 4 bps at 3.01%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0054% (5.9010% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is up 0.21% at 98.91
- Gold is up 0.37% at $3,383.20/oz
- Silver is down 0.38% at $34.43/oz
- Nikkei 225 closed unchanged at 37,446.81
- Hang Seng closed +1.53% at 23,512.49
- FTSE is down 0.11% at 8,764.75
- Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.19% at 5,345.17
- DJIA closed on Monday unchanged at 42,305.48
- S&P 500 closed +0.41% at 5,935.94
- Nasdaq closed +0.67% at 19,242.61
- S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.82% at 26,389.00
- S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.52% at 2,567.88
- U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is down 3 bps at 4.42%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.39% at 5,924.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.34% at 21,461.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.37% at 42,219.00
Bitcoin Stats
- BTC Dominance: 64.05 (-0.31%)
- Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02484 (0.89%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 922 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $51.3
- Total Fees: 4.77 BTC / $500,036
- CME Futures Open Interest: 145,560 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 31.1 oz
- BTC vs gold market cap: 8.81%
Technical Analysis
- The ether-bitcoin ratio has carved out a symmetrical triangle, identified by the two converging trendlines, indicating unwillingness among bulls and bears to lead the price action.
- Such patterns typically set the stage for the next leg higher.
Crypto Equities
- Strategy (MSTR): closed on Monday at $372.27 (+0.87%), +0.69% at $374.85 in pre-market
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $246.72 (+0.04%), +0.8% at $248.70
- Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$25.40 (+1.93%)
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.36 (+1.7%), +0.63% at $14.45
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $8.48 (+5.08%), +0.59% at $8.53
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $10.93 (+2.63%), -0.37% at $10.89
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.61 (-0.23%), +0.46% at $8.65
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $17.2 (+4.43%)
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $35.59 (-11.03%), +0.42% at $35.74
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $26.54 (-6.88%), -0.15% at $26.50
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flow: -$267.5 million
- Cumulative net flows: $44.08 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~ 1.20 million
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flow: $78.2 million
- Cumulative net flows: $3.14 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~ 3.66 million
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
- The chart shows the U.S. trading hours now account for less than 45% of the total spot market activity in BTC, ETH and SOL.
- Meanwhile, the Asian trading hours’ share has increased.
While You Were Sleeping
- U.S. Share of Bitcoin, Ether and Solana Trading Volume Falls Below 45% as Asia Catches Up (CoinDesk): Asian hours now account for a larger share of BTC, ETH, and SOL trading, even as global spot volumes remain subdued despite bitcoin’s 40% rally since early April.
- Coinbase Moves to Bring Oregon Securities Suit to Federal Jurisdiction (CoinDesk): Coinbase slams Oregon’s lawsuit as a ‘regulatory land grab,’ accusing the state’s attorney general of trying to override federal crypto guidelines.
- The Blockchain Group Buys Nearly $70M Worth of Bitcoin, Boosting Total Holdings to 1,471 BTC (CoinDesk): The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), listed on Euronext Growth Paris and known as Europe’s first bitcoin treasury company, bought 624 BTC for approximately 60.2 million euros ($68.8 million).
- U.S. Growth Forecast Cut Sharply by OECD As Trump Tariffs Sour Global Outlook (CNBC): They slashed their 2025 U.S. growth forecast to 1.6% from 2.2%, and projected just 1.5% for 2026; global growth is expected to slow to 2.9% this year and next.
- Russia and Ukraine Ratchet Up War While Trying to Show Trump They Want Peace (The Wall Street Journal): Russia and Ukraine met for just an hour Monday in Istanbul, agreeing only on a prisoner swap while sidestepping meaningful steps toward peace, despite growing pressure from Trump.
- Donald Trump Says Iran Must End All Uranium Enrichment as Part of Nuclear Deal (Financial Times): Trump publicly rejected his envoy’s reported offer to allow low-level enrichment for civilian use, sharpening confusion over U.S. terms as nuclear talks with Iran enter week eight.
In the Ether
