SharpLink and Bitmine, two ETH treasury firms, both show unrealized losses above 50% after buying near 3,400 to 3,609 per ETH. SharpLink holds 886,725 ETH and trades about 21% below its ETH net asset value, while Bitmine holds 5,700,040 ETH, about 4.7% of supply, and trades near a 6% discount.

ether.fi submitted a proposal to the Aave community to deploy an ether.fi managed Aave V4 instance on OP Mainnet to support ether.fi Cash. The plan includes allocating 20% of revenue to the Aave DAO, integrating GHO and the GHO GSM, migrating the ether.fi debt manager, and providing up to $175 million in asset backing.

Standard Chartered and Circle are deepening the ties between USD Coin (USDC) and mainstream banking, rolling out a bank-led channel that lets institutional clients mint and redeem USDC via Standard Chartered’s rails. The service will debut in Dubai through the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), with plans to extend to additional markets. Standard Chartered said it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to provide an institutional USDC mint-and-redeem service of this kind. Instead of opening separate accounts directly with Circle, eligible institutions will be able to access USDC through Standard Chartered's platform as part of an integrated proposition spanning banking, custody and digital-asset services. The bank also flagged future support for payment-related use cases. The push comes as stablecoins move further into the financial mainstream. Data from Artemis shows the supply of USD-pegged stablecoins has nearly doubled over the last 24 months, rising from about $160 billion to roughly $300 billion by July 2026. Tether's USDT remains the market leader, while Circle's USDC holds the No. 2 position. Recent USDC supply has hovered around $70–$80 billion, indicating sustained demand even as new issuers enter the market. Summary: Standard Chartered and Circle will enable institutional USDC minting and redemption starting in Dubai. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin, with supply recently in the $70–$80 billion range.

ChainCatcher reports that Onchain Lens tracking shows a newly created wallet, "0x58f", deposited 1.995 million USDC into HyperLiquid and opened a 5x leveraged long position in GOLD. The trade totals 2,327.39 GOLD contracts, with a notional value of about $9.74 million.

Odaily Planet Daily cited Onchain Lens data showing that a newly created wallet deposited 1.995 million USDC into HyperLiquid and opened a 5x leveraged long position of 2,327.39 gold contracts, valued at about $9.74 million.

Crypto prices pushed higher on Friday, led by ether and solana, as a wave of short covering lifted bitcoin toward $62,000 and capped the market's first clearly strong week since mid-June. Bitcoin was trading near $61,360, up 2.5% over the past seven days, according to CoinDesk data. Ether jumped 4.2% in the past 24 hours to about $1,702 and is up 9.7% for the week. Solana hovered around $80, posting an 18.6% weekly gain—the strongest performance among major tokens. XRP rose 5.7% over the week to $1.09, while Hyperliquid's HYPE advanced 5.1% on the day. Liquidations data underscored the squeeze. Over the past 24 hours, traders positioned against crypto saw $281 million in forced closures, compared with $159 million in long liquidations, out of $440 million total across 95,690 traders, Coinglass reported. When short positions are liquidated, traders must buy back the asset to close out, adding demand that can cascade into further short liquidations. The largest single liquidation was an $18.2 million ether position on Hyperliquid. Ether accounted for $157 million of wiped short positions, exceeding bitcoin's $103 million in a notable reversal from the usual pattern. Macro conditions also supported risk assets. U.S. June employment data released Thursday came in weaker than expected, reducing expectations for another Federal Reserve rate hike and pressuring the dollar against most major currencies, Bloomberg reported. Softer hiring eased the case for restrictive policy that has weighed on crypto since the Fed's hawkish June outlook. Gold rose for a third straight session as rate-hike bets faded. Equities steadied as well. Asian stocks bounced after two days of tech-led losses, with South Korea's Kospi gaining 3% after briefly flirting with a technical bear market. Samsung Electronics climbed 6.8% following reports that AI firm Anthropic is in talks with the company to manufacture a custom AI chip—a signal that AI-related spending behind this year's equity rally remains resilient. A firmer AI trade can reduce the near-term pressure from capital rotating away from crypto, though it also revives the competition for investor flows seen in the first half of the year. The key question is whether the current squeeze turns into a sustained trend: short-covering can drive sharp moves without creating lasting demand, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still digesting record monthly outflows, and third-quarter liquidity is typically thinner—amplifying moves in either direction.

July 3 — EtherFi has posted a Temp Check on the Aave Governance Forum proposing the deployment of a dedicated, white-labeled Aave V4 instance on OP Mainnet to serve as the credit engine for its Visa card offering, EtherFi Cash. The setup would replace EtherFi's current Debt Manager. Under the proposal, the new market would remain isolated while sharing liquidity and certain market resources with Aave. EtherFi would take responsibility for configuration, risk parameters, liquidity provisioning and day-to-day operations. Aave would grant V4 deployment and operational authorization and receive 20% of the reserve factor revenue. Commercial terms outlined include integrating GHO, deploying the GHO GSM on OP Mainnet, onboarding up to $1.75 billion of assets at launch, and designating EtherFi Cash as the exclusive user of the Aave V4 lending market. The Temp Check is slated to collect at least five days of community feedback; if it passes, the plan would move to the ARFC phase, with a target deployment in July 2026.

Solana posted record readings across several core on-chain indicators in the second quarter of 2026, CoinDesk reported, citing SolanaFloor-aggregated data. The network set new highs in tokenized stock trading, perpetuals volume, transaction activity and dApp revenue, reinforcing its role in high-frequency trading use cases. Tokenized stock trading on Solana reached a new quarterly peak, with spot volume hitting $4.84 billion in Q2. The report said Solana accounted for more than 96% of the segment, processing more volume than all other blockchains combined and extending its lead for a fourth straight quarter. As on-chain securities trading expands, tokenized equities are emerging as one of the fastest-growing parts of the ecosystem. dApp revenue also remained a standout. Applications in the Solana ecosystem generated a combined $257 million in Q2, keeping Solana at the top among major Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. The report said Solana has held a leading position for nine consecutive quarters, suggesting developer activity and user demand have stayed resilient despite heightened competition. Perpetual contracts set a separate record, with notional trading volume rising to $183 billion in Q2. Competition among decentralized perpetuals venues intensified: GMTrade led the quarter in trading volume, while Pacifica and Jupiter also contributed meaningful activity. By May, GMTrade's total value locked exceeded $40 million, cumulative trading volume topped $50 billion and protocol fee income surpassed $6.58 million. Phoenix recorded a new daily volume high during the quarter and introduced the "Flight Codes" feature, aimed at letting developers build and monetize applications and services around its marketplace. Beyond trading, Solana's daily, weekly and monthly transaction counts also reached all-time highs throughout Q2. The report added that the Solana Foundation's share of staking continues to decline, reflecting an ongoing reduction in its direct influence over validation as the validator set matures.

Standard Chartered has set a $60 price target for Morpho (MORPHO) by 2030, prompting investors to revisit the protocol's long-term positioning in tokenized finance. The bank's note points to Morpho's Markets and Vaults design and anticipates continued growth across decentralized finance infrastructure. MORPHO was up 14.15% over the past 24 hours at press time as activity picked up sharply. Trading volume surged 315.37%, signaling a renewed wave of participation following the institutional endorsement. The report did not outline a near-term route to the 2030 valuation, instead emphasizing a multi-year adoption case tied to rising institutional involvement in decentralized lending. The market response appeared driven by longer-term conviction rather than expectations of an immediate 30x move. Derivatives positioning expanded alongside the rally. Open interest rose 19.17% to $39.19 million, suggesting new capital flowed into futures markets rather than positions simply rotating. Derivatives volume jumped 315.37% to about $135.16 million, outpacing the increase in open interest and indicating active repositioning around the catalyst with relatively restrained leverage growth. The combination of higher price and higher open interest also pointed to fresh long exposure supporting the move, not just short covering. On-chain exchange flows remained orderly. Morpho posted a daily net outflow of $66.94K, meaning slightly more tokens left exchanges than entered. The modest outflow suggests holders were not rushing to deposit tokens for immediate selling after the spike. Exchange balances stayed broadly stable as interest rose following Standard Chartered's coverage, a pattern more consistent with improving confidence than aggressive distribution. Technically, Morpho has confirmed a double-bottom reversal after defending the $1.64 support area twice and rebounding. Price has pushed toward the $2.24 resistance zone, which previously turned buyers away and now stands as the next key hurdle. At the time of writing, MACD momentum improved as the MACD line crossed above the signal line and the green histogram bars expanded. Buyers also reclaimed the $2.00 psychological level, reinforcing the short-term setup. A decisive daily close above $2.24 would put the $3.00 level on the chart into focus; failure to break could see a pullback toward $2.00 before another attempt. Standard Chartered's initiation has helped lift sentiment, drawing fresh institutionally oriented interest as MORPHO tests a major resistance level after completing a bullish double-bottom recovery.