Today's news tips:
World Gold Council: 95% of central banks expect gold reserves to increase in the next 12 months
The Bank of Japan kept its target interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, in line with market expectations
The U.S. Senate will hold a final vote on the GENIUS Act at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Binance Alpha to List Matchain (MAT) on June 19
Binance Alpha trading volume fell back to $749 million, down more than 60% from its high point
Ark Invest sold off its Circle shares at a high level on Monday, cashing out $51.7 million
FTX cold wallet received nearly $40 million in SOL from Coinbase Prime 11 hours ago
Regulatory/Macro
Iran's military says it will intensify attacks on Israel
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), a senior Iranian military commander said that attacks against Israel will intensify in the coming hours and a new round of attacks involving hundreds of drones will be launched.
The Bank of Japan kept its target interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, in line with market expectations
The Bank of Japan kept its target interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, in line with market expectations, and remained on hold for the third consecutive meeting. The Bank of Japan: The bond reduction plan was decided by an 8-1 vote. The monthly purchase of government bonds will be reduced, and the total purchase amount is expected to be about 2 trillion yen from January to March 2027. From April 2026, the purchase of Japanese government bonds will be reduced by about 200 billion yen per month each quarter.
U.S. stocks closed: Circle rose 13.1%, Coinbase rose 7.77%
At the close of U.S. stocks on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially closed up 0.77%, the S&P 500 rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq rose 1.5%. Nvidia (NVDA.O) rose 1.9%, and cryptocurrency stocks rose across the board, with Circle (CRCL.K) up 13.1% and Coinbase (COIN.O) up 7.77%.
According to Watcher.Guru, JPMorgan Chase has applied for the "JPMD" trademark for cryptocurrency trading and payment services, which may indicate that it will launch a stablecoin denominated in US dollars, JP Morgan Dollar. The new trademark covers functions such as crypto asset trading, payment, and custody. Previously, the bank has opened Bitcoin purchase channels to customers and accepted crypto ETFs as loan collateral. Although CEO Jamie Dimon once called Bitcoin a "Ponzi scheme," the bank is now rapidly embracing crypto finance.
PumpFun’s Twitter account and founder’s account were frozen by X platform
The official X (formerly Twitter) account of Solana meme coin launch platform PumpFun and the personal account of its founder Alon Cohen have both been suspended by X (frozen).
The U.S. Senate will hold a final vote on the GENIUS Act at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow.
According to Eleanor Terrett and Senate Cloakroom, the U.S. Senate will hold a final vote on the GENIUS Act (S.1582) at 4:30 a.m. Beijing time on June 18 (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on June 17). The bill has completed the amendment process and will be sent to the House of Representatives for deliberation if passed. This is the last round of voting for the bill in the Senate.
Viewpoint
According to Matrixport analysis, Bitcoin ETFs have attracted $11.2 billion in new inflows in the past eight weeks, but the price of Bitcoin has only risen by about 10%. This modest increase may reflect the sentiment of some market participants to take advantage of the situation to sell, or to re-enter the market after waiting and watching. Overall, the Bitcoin market has formed a stable buying support, and although the source of buying has been changing, there has been almost no sustained net outflow from the ETF. In addition, compared with the Trump election period, MicroStrategy's current pace of adding positions has slowed down slightly, but the stable inflow of funds still provides solid support for the price of Bitcoin.
World Gold Council: 95% of central banks expect gold reserves to increase in the next 12 months
The World Gold Council said its 2025 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey set a new benchmark with 73 responses - the highest number since the survey was launched eight years ago. Such high participation is a strong indication that the central bank community is paying more attention to gold. The survey results show: 1. Central banks' expectations for gold continue to improve, with 95% of central banks believing that global central bank gold reserves will increase in the next 12 months. 2. A record 43% of central banks said their institutions' gold reserves will also increase over the same period, and no one expects gold holdings to fall. 3. The proportion of central banks actively managing gold reserves increased from 37% in 2024 to 44% in 2025. Improving returns is still the main reason, but risk management surpasses tactical trading to become the second largest motivation. 4. The Bank of England remains the most popular place to store gold reserves (64%), but the proportion of central banks choosing to store gold domestically has increased from 41% in 2024 to 59% in 2025, but only 7% plan to increase domestic storage in the next 12 months. Gold’s performance in times of crisis, its portfolio diversification function and its anti-inflation properties are key factors driving central banks’ plans to increase their gold holdings over the coming year. These characteristics are also the core reasons why central banks make strategic allocations to gold.
Citi: Gold will fall back below $3,000 in the coming quarters
Citigroup said it expects gold to fall back below $3,000 an ounce in the coming quarters. "Gold will return to around $2,500-2,700 an ounce by the second half of 2026," analysts including Max Layton said. Weaker investment demand, improved global economic growth prospects and Federal Reserve rate cuts could all contribute to the slide in gold prices. "We think investment demand for gold will weaken in late 2025 and 2026 as Trump's popularity rises and the 'put option' on US economic growth comes into effect, especially as the US midterm elections come into focus," they said. In addition, "we think the Fed has a lot of room to lower restrictive policy to neutral." In the bank's base case (with a 60% probability), gold prices are expected to consolidate above $3,000 an ounce in the next quarter and then move lower.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, published a new article titled "Assume the Position" pointing out that the success of stablecoin issuers depends on whether they have distribution channels through crypto exchanges, social media platforms or traditional banks. Tether has established a strong network effect due to its early roots in Greater China and deep integration with Bitfinex. Although Circle distributes USDC with the help of Coinbase, it is still at a disadvantage. With Meta, X, Google and others planning to issue their own stablecoins, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Hayes warned investors that new issuers who lack channels will find it difficult to maintain high valuations even if they are successfully listed, and may eventually return to zero.
Project News
Binance Alpha airdrop will be carried out in two phases starting from June 19
Binance announced that starting from June 19, 2025, the Alpha airdrop activity will be divided into two phases: Phase 1: Users who meet the Alpha points threshold (X) can receive the airdrop within a specified time. Phase 2: The points threshold will be reduced to Y (Y is less than X), and the airdrop will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis until the airdrop pool is distributed or the activity expires.
Bithumb will launch SPK Korean Won trading market
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced that it will launch the Korean won trading market of Spark (SPK). The supported network is the Ethereum network, and recharges of other networks are not supported for the time being.
Binance Alpha users with more than 240 points can receive 2,000 SPK tokens airdrop
Binance announced that it has become the first trading platform to list Spark (SPK), and trading will start at 16:00 on June 17, 2025 (GMT+8). At the same time, eligible users can participate in the SPK airdrop event. Users who hold at least 240 Binance Alpha points can go to the Alpha Events page to claim the airdrop reward of 2,000 SPK tokens when trading starts. It should be noted that claiming the airdrop will consume 15 Alpha points, and users must complete the claim confirmation within 24 hours, otherwise it will be deemed as waived.
Binance Alpha to List Matchain (MAT) on June 19
According to Binance's announcement, Binance Alpha will launch Matchain (MAT) for the first time, and trading will start on June 19th, Beijing time, with the specific time to be announced. Eligible users can use Alpha points to claim the airdrop through the Alpha event page. The airdrop will be carried out in two stages. The first stage is for qualified users to claim, and the second stage will lower the threshold and be first come first served. More details will be announced on June 19th.
Binance: Users with Alpha Points 238 and above can participate in the Bombie (BOMB) TGE event
Binance Wallet will launch the 24th TGE event from 16:00 to 18:00 (UTC+8) on June 17, with the Bombie (BOMB) project on the list. Eligible users need to use 15 Binance Alpha Points to participate, and the eligibility threshold is ≥ 238 points. An additional 50 million BOMBs will be used for future activities.
According to Buildpad official information, Sahara AI has successfully completed the $SAHARA community round on the platform. The total number of subscriptions for this event exceeded 100,000, and it attracted more than 30,000 KYC certified contributors from 118 countries, with a total commitment of more than US$74 million, and an oversubscription rate of 777%.
According to Infini's announcement, the services of its three types of cards, Global, Lite, and Tech, will be completely suspended from now on. No new applications will be accepted. Recharge, withdrawal, and financial management functions will not be affected. Users who have paid the card opening fee will be automatically refunded (minus the discount) and returned to the Infini account balance within 10 working days, without manual operation. All in-transit or overdue refunds will also be processed.
According to Investing, after Nasdaq-listed company SRM received a $100 million equity investment to launch its TRX reserve strategy, it announced personnel changes in the company. Three board members resigned, and Weike Sun was newly appointed as chairman of the board, and Zhihong Liu and Zi Yang were newly appointed as board members. Public information shows that Weike Sun graduated from Qinghai Normal University and has been responsible for senior management and consulting work in many financial technology companies such as Ruibo (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.
According to the official release of Polyhedra, the ZKJ token plummeted by more than 85% on June 15. Preliminary investigations pointed out that it was a chain reaction caused by a coordinated liquidity attack on the chain. Multiple addresses quickly dumped ZKJ after large withdrawals from PancakeSwap, causing an imbalance in the price of the KOGE/ZKJ pool. At the same time, Wintermute transferred a large amount of about 3.39 million ZKJ to the centralized exchange (CEX) in a short period of time, exacerbating the selling pressure. More than $94 million was forced to close in CEX, further triggering a waterfall-like decline. Polyhedra said that the team did not sell ZKJ, but only participated in liquidity provision, and will release a more detailed analysis later.
Important data
Pump.fun has sold approximately 4.1 million SOL since May 19, 2024, worth approximately $741 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, Pumpfun, whose account was recently suspended by the X platform, has sold a total of about 4.1 million SOL since May 19, 2024, with a total value of about US$741 million and an average selling price of about US$180. Among them, Pumpfun sold 264,373 SOL at a price of US$158 and obtained US$41.64 million USDC; another 3.84 million SOL (worth US$699 million) was deposited in the Kraken exchange at a price of US$182.
An unknown wallet minted $100 million USDC on Algorand
According to Whale Alert monitoring, at 14:00 Beijing time, an unknown wallet address minted $100 million USDC (approximately $99.9814 million) on the Algorand chain, and the transaction hash was IWLJAJDLF7TGLPJAEFUUJOI736JK7EUWX34F4EUTKENKULIBKCTA.
Binance Alpha trading volume fell back to $749 million, down more than 60% from its high point
According to @pandajackson42's data panel, the total trading volume of Binance Alpha platform fell to $749 million on June 16, 2025, down about 63.3% from the high of $2.04 billion on June 8. Among them, the AB token had the largest trading volume yesterday, with a single-day transaction volume of $343 million, followed by TAIKO, SERAPH, etc. Alpha trading heat has fallen from its peak in mid-May, indicating that the market's short-term momentum is weakening.
FTX cold wallet received nearly $40 million in SOL from Coinbase Prime 11 hours ago
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the FTX cold wallet received 252,847 SOL from Coinbase Prime 11 hours ago, with a market value of approximately US$39.72 million at the time.
Ark Invest sold off its Circle shares at a high level on Monday, cashing out $51.7 million
According to The Block, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest reduced its holdings of stablecoin USDC issuer Circle (CRCL) on Monday, totaling 342,658 shares, cashing out about $51.7 million. Among them, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) reduced its holdings by 196,367 shares, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) reduced its holdings by 92,310 shares, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) reduced its holdings by 53,981 shares.
According to ai_9684xtpa monitoring, an on-chain user sold 1 SPK token through the Uniswap V3 pool and received $19,686.87. According to Binance Alpha data, the current SPK token is temporarily reported at $0.076.
Financing
Robot intelligence platform PrismaX has completed a $11 million seed round led by a16z crypto CSX, with participation from Volt Capital, Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, Symbolic Capital and Virtuals Protocol. PrismaX focuses on building a decentralized data incentive mechanism to promote the standardization of robot vision data and the development of remote control infrastructure, with the goal of achieving efficient training and large-scale deployment of physical AI models.
Institutional holdings
The Blockchain Group raises €7.2 million to advance Bitcoin Vault strategy
The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), a European listed company, announced that it has completed approximately 7.2 million euros in financing through an ATM-style capital increase agreement with TOBAM, issuing 1.6 million new shares at an average price of 4.49 euros per share. The funds raised will be used to continue to advance its "Bitcoin Treasury Company" strategy, aiming to increase the number of bitcoins held per share in the long term. Three funds under TOBAM subscribed to the shares, including TOBAM Bitcoin CO2 Offset Fund, Bitcoin Treasury Opportunities Fund and Blockchain Equity Fund.
Interactive Strength has started buying AI tokens FET in the secondary market through BitGo
Interactive Strength Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNR) announced that it has completed its first round of financing of US$55 million and has begun purchasing AI tokens FET in the secondary market through BitGo. This round of financing was jointly participated by ATW Partners and DWF Labs. TRNR plans to continue to use the remaining funds and subsequent financing for FET purchases, with the goal of building the largest AI crypto asset vault among US listed companies.
