Following the approval of stablecoin legislation in the Senate, Circle and Coinbase celebrated as if it were 1999 (and they were dot-com stocks) with each of them rising double digits in hopes that cryptocurrencies would become commonplace.
Earlier in the afternoon, CIRCLE reached $180, marking a new all-time high for the stock. It later rose, closing the session just below $200, with a 33% increase on the day. COIN shares, for their part, rose 16% to $295.
Circle is the issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin in the industry, pegged to the US dollar, after Tether's USDT. The latter has a market capitalization close to $155 billion, while USDC is approaching one-third of that size. However, Coinbase is aligned with USDC, the exchange's stablecoin, which benefits its results, as Coinbase participates in the revenue derived from the interest generated by the reserves of USDC backing the circulating USDC.
For its part, Coinbase reported $217 million in earnings in the first quarter thanks to the revenue-sharing agreement, compared to $197 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Warned about inflation, markets are simply yawning
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a clear and concise message to the markets on Wednesday shortly before 3 p.m. (Eastern Time): some inflation is to be expected soon.
Some stocks experienced a brief sell-off, more or less. But ultimately, the market shrugged it off. At 3:30 p.m. (EST), the Dow and the S&P 500 were trading in a volatile and sideways manner. The latter, a leading index, seems to enjoy hovering just a few points below 6,000. It wouldn't rise much higher. By the close on Wednesday, the S&P 500 recorded a slight loss of 0.03%.
Bitcoin, which is struggling to determine whether it is a risk asset or a hedge against inflation, remained stable on Wednesday around $104,000, down 4% from a week ago. BTC has dropped 7% from its all-time high of $111,814, reached on May 22, according to CoinGecko.
"Everyone I know is forecasting a significant increase in inflation in the coming months due to tariffs, because someone has to pay for them," Powell said during a press conference yesterday following the conclusion of the Fed's June meeting, where interest rates were left unchanged.
Meanwhile, the conflict between Israel and Iran has created an additional layer of clouds over a dense fog related to the trade war. As for U.S. intervention, President Trump had still not made a decision as of last night.
Despite the magic potion that could lead to slower growth and higher prices—particularly at gas stations if the war in the Middle East continues—the Fed still holds expectations for the possibility of two rate cuts this year.
Right now, some bold predictions about XRP are circulating.
We will start with a cryptocurrency analyst, Mikybull Crypto: "Rally vibes from 2017 are coming."
Back then, XRP emerged from its bottomless pit with the fury of an angry hippopotamus, soaring from a five-cent coin in February 2017 to over $3 in January 2018. According to Cointelegraph, various unconventional methods, such as chart fractals, Elliott wave analysis, and Fibonacci extensions, suggest that XRP could skyrocket more than 1000% to $25.
Mikybull Crypto is based on a technical setup known as a bullish pennant. These pennants typically develop like this: the price of an asset rises sharply, forming a flagpole; then it consolidates into a small symmetrical triangle (the pennant).
"Bullish pennants generally resolve after the price breaks above the triangle's resistance line and rises to the height of the previous bullish trend," explained Cointelegraph, pointing to a possible bullish trend (if history serves as a guide) in which XRP rises more than 500% to $14.
The first step on this path would involve XRP breaking the resistance of $2.65. XRP has not reached that mark since early March.
As everything collapses... ZBCN reached the milestone of 100 million dollars.
Zebec Network, a non-chain payment infrastructure provider that is redefining the way money moves.
Initially developed on Solana and now operating on multiple blockchains, Zebec enables programmable real-time payments for global payrolls, asset transfers, and everyday financial operations. By leveraging the underlying blockchain networks, it eliminates high fees, delays, and intermediaries, offering faster and more efficient alternatives to traditional systems.
Backed by Coinbase, Circle, and Solana Ventures, Zebec has reached an important milestone: $100 million in assets.
Zebec Network, the payment platform, surpasses us. Its native token, ZBCN, reached the status of James Bond ($0.007) by hitting its new all-time high today, rising to the Top 150 according to CoinGecko. The threshold of 500 million dollars in market capitalization has been reached. From its lowest point in early May, ZBCN has skyrocketed over 700%. Yesterday, Zebec announced the acquisition of Science Card, a British fintech focused on the financial lives of university students.
Meanwhile, the Top 100 chart shows nothing green. Cronos (CRO) was not advancing much but led the performance of mid-cap altcoins, with a 0.3% increase in 24 hours. What about Fasttoken (FTN)? It rose by 1% this week.
Stock futures were in a volatile situation early in the morning, as investors tried to navigate a constantly changing course of decisions and implications related to tariffs. Cryptocurrencies have pulled back drastically.
Major Leagues Slightly Down; Zebec Takes a Breather
Major currencies, including SOL and XRP, fell between 1% and 2% in the last 24 hours as the world awaits information on Nvidia's first-quarter earnings to be released later today.
Meanwhile, Zebec Network (ZBCN), a financial infrastructure network managed by Solana, has had a parabolic landing and has nearly doubled in the last week.
With a market capitalization of approximately $315 million, ZBCN easily ranks among the top 250 digital assets on CoinGecko. On Monday, ZBCN discreetly reached an all-time high price per coin of $0.005244. Since then, it has lost approximately 25%. Still, its value has surged by 240% just last month amid a wave of announced sponsorships and collaborations, including the integration of Chainlink oracles and the creation of a prominent role related to RWA for Ondo Finance's USDY stablecoin. Last month, Zebec, taking advantage of the growth of its ecosystem in Europe, became a sponsor of the German Bundesliga (99Bitcoins).
Just a few days before its historic inclusion in the S&P 500 index, Coinbase revealed yesterday through a presentation that a cyberattack earlier this month resulted in the theft of customer account data.
Bloomberg, citing a source, reports that hackers have had access to the data since the beginning of the year.
Coinbase insists that if any customer was tricked into mistakenly sending funds, they will receive a refund. The incident could cost the exchange up to 400 million dollars, according to the platform.
"In the long list of cryptocurrency companies that have been hacked, there are many examples of financial losses that are much more painful than what Coinbase seems to be suffering as a result of the attack," Bloomberg stated. "However, this case stands out for its significance. This time, the victim was possibly the most influential American company in the sector."
In an openly aggressive scheme, cybercriminals bribed customer representatives to steal their confidential data (names, birth dates, addresses, nationalities, government-issued identification numbers, banking information like balances, and even details about when accounts were created); then the culprits demanded a ransom of 20 million dollars to delete them, Bloomberg said.
"It's a significant leak," said Mike Dudas, managing partner of 6MV, a Web3 company, who told Bloomberg that he had been targeted by Coinbase hackers. "The amount of personal information shared is astounding," he added.
The United States and China agreed to pause most tariffs in a welcome reduction of trade tensions.
Reciprocal tariffs between both countries will be reduced from 125% to 10%.
Addressing the press on Sunday, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said that talks with the United States "achieved substantial progress and reached an important consensus".
"We had very productive talks," agreed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Tai Hui, a strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, stated in a research note published by CNBC that the magnitude of the tariff reduction between the United States and China was enormous. "This reflects that both sides recognize the economic reality that tariffs will affect global growth and that negotiation is a better option moving forward," Hui declared. The 90-day timeframe may not be enough for both sides to reach a detailed agreement. "But," Hui added, "it keeps the pressure on the negotiation process."
According to CryptoQuant, Bitcoin's conviction levels have never been higher, at least according to one indicator. Yes, Bitcoin reached $100,000. It was around 7 AM (EST). We were reviewing the charts when it happened. But around 9 AM (EST), Bitcoin had settled near $99,200, losing 0.3% in the previous hour, suddenly moving away from a key psychological level, but possibly still on the verge of new advances, bullish analysts insist.
In a post on X on Sunday, a Bitcoin developer named Charlie Shrem claimed that he was working on a "reference" website to distribute BTC supposedly for the sole purpose of promoting wider adoption.
Shrem is known for his role as co-founder of BitInstant and the Bitcoin Foundation. He served a year in prison in 2015 for a money laundering charge related to allegations that BitInstant facilitated allegedly illegal activities on Silk Road. After his release in 2016, Shrem returned to the cryptocurrency world and founded Druid Ventures, a venture capital fund specializing in cryptocurrencies. He also launched a podcast.
Called faucets, like the one created by Gavin Andresen in 2010, drove the adoption of BTC in its early days, as Cointelegraph noted. "Faucets encouraged the creation of wallets and transactions, which contributed to the expansion of Bitcoin's user base and network activity," Cointelegraph stated.
Andresen's Bitcoin Faucet page, in what is the most well-known example, delivered nearly 20,000 coins (now worth around 2 billion dollars) for solving "CAPTCHA" tasks (commonly used to distinguish humans from machines).
Other websites began to offer similar services. However, Cointelegraph stated that as the price of BTC and transaction fees rose in the middle of the last decade, the model became unsustainable.
I hope I don't have to say I TOLD YOU SO! (actually, I do hope so)
ZBCN describes itself as:
The Zebec network is a decentralized infrastructure network designed to facilitate payments. Initially built on the Solana blockchain, Zebec has evolved into a multi-chain platform that integrates blockchain into everyday financial operations. Zebec aims to revolutionize traditional finance by addressing inefficiencies such as high transaction fees, delays, and reliance on intermediaries, especially in the context of global payment and payroll systems. Backed by $35 million in investments from prominent companies like Circle, Coinbase, and Solana Ventures, Zebec aspires to position itself as a leading player in decentralized finance (DeFi), payments with real assets, and physical infrastructure (DePIN).
Research and draw your own conclusions before investing; it hurts less than following the fanatic crowd blinded by the dream that the cheapest thing I find will make me rich tomorrow.
Don't invest what you are not willing to lose, but above all, do not follow any finance guru or the first stranger who tells you what to do.
Concerns about tariffs are growing, but the bad smell doesn't seem to affect Bitcoin. The most important cryptocurrency reached $97,000 with a gain of 1% in the last 24 hours, enjoying a favorable position as a trendy safe haven compared to gold, although it is not immune to the bullish fluctuations of risk assets.
Ethereum, ahead of a significant upgrade next week, lost a small amount of value while remaining in the green (+2%) for the week.
Wait, why has Dogecoin risen 1.2% in the last day? Shouldn't it be below 18 cents? Ah, it's that fickle hope for a spot ETF, which eternally grows and fuels optimism, according to social media data ( CoinDesk ).
During two weeks of markets with strong fluctuations, battered by tariffs, BTC rose by 15%. At 7:53 a.m. (EST), BTC, having spent most of the night awake, was at a roadside motel smoking, unshaven, with only thirty dollars difference from a target it could be prouder of if it only got its act together.
Traders are optimistic that this time it’s real, that the United States and China are negotiating. There is a lot at stake. Some large companies, like Apple and GM, sounded the alarm on May 1 about rising production costs related to the trade war. Trump, for his part, has acknowledged that tariffs could make toys less affordable, while raising the idea of two dolls per child per year as a possible representation of a reasonably recalibrated level of demand.
A strengthening of demand for BTC is expected, largely thanks to Strategy (MSTR), the firm of Michael Saylor. The firm, formerly known as MicroStrategy and previously selling business intelligence software, has reinvented itself as a publicly traded vehicle for exposure to BTC and is raising another $21 billion aimed at wholesale purchases, after exhausting the previous $21 billion accumulated. “The injection of this new capital could drive new companies to establish their reserves in BTC,” FXStreet stated.
Meanwhile, Metaplanet, Strategy's Japanese protege, issued $24.7 million in zero-interest bonds to buy more BTC. Metaplanet currently has 5,000 BTC in its reserve.