News & Research

A survey tracking weekly trends among South Korean cryptocurrency investors, conducted by CoinNess and Cratos from June 23 to 27, found that 45.5% of respondents expect Bitcoin's (BTC) value to increase or significantly jump this week, an increase from last week's 41.9%. Meanwhile, 27.5% predict a stable market, down from 33.4% last week, and 27.0% anticipate a decline or sharp drop, up from 24.7% previously. When asked about the overall market sentiment, 48.4% indicated optimism or extreme optimism. While 31.2% felt neutral, 20.4% expressed feelings of fear or extreme fear. Amid growing expectations of an early interest rate cut in the U.S., following Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller’s indication of a possible July reduction, 34.4% of respondents expect the crypto market to rise in response. Meanwhile, 27.8% foresee it moving sideways without a clear trend, 22.6% anticipate a decline due to the absence of strong catalysts and 15.2% remain uncertain about the market's direction.

Here is the list of tokens that were most searched for and mentioned in the South Korean crypto community (K-Community) of CoinNess between June 20 and 26. Top 10 searched tokens - XRP 44,548 - SEI 23,911 - ETH 21,836 - BTC 19,445 - ONDO 13,801 - MOVE 13,012 - SOL 8,465 - UXLINK 8,262 - APT 6,759 - SAHARA 6,504 Top 10 mentioned tokens - BTC 1,668 - ETH 746 - TRUMP 387 - SEI 255 - XRP 195 - SOL 122 - AERGO 87 - MOVE 73 - STMX 72 - ONDO 70

Digital asset investment products experienced a combined inflow of $2.7 billion last week, marking the 11th consecutive week of net inflows and adding up to a total inflow of nearly $17.8 billion for the first half of the year, according to the latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report released by CoinShares in a blog post. Among them, Bitcoin and Ethereum investment products recorded inflows of $2.224 billion and $429.1 million, respectively.

Wintermute, a crypto market maker, has obtained a Bitcoin-backed credit line from Cantor Fitzgerald, a U.S. financial services firm. This follows similar financing agreements Cantor made last month with Maple Finance, a crypto lending protocol, and FalconX, a crypto prime brokerage. According to CoinDesk, Cantor’s newly launched Bitcoin Financing Business aims to provide up to $2 billion in funding during its initial rollout. The specific amount of the Wintermute deal was not disclosed.

BNB Smart Chain has completed its Maxwell upgrade, cutting average block times from 1.5 seconds to 0.8 seconds, according to Cointelegraph. The hard fork is designed to enhance overall scalability, improve validator synchronization and optimize network performance.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) moved 7,383 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $796 million to three new wallets about 11 hours ago, likely for enhanced custody, according to Lookonchain on X.

Toss Bank, a South Korean neobank, has filed 48 trademark applications tied to Korean won-based stablecoins, MTN reported. The move comes as financial authorities prepare to launch a task force in the second half of the year to develop a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Toss Bank’s initiative follows similar steps taken by KB Kookmin Bank and KakaoBank.

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) project dKloud has raised $3.15 million in a funding round with participation from Animoca Ventures, Blizzard Fund, the Telos Foundation, TPS Capital and others, according to Odaily. The fund is set to develop a deployment solution for enterprise applications based on both cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

The Altcoin Season Index, a metric tracked by cryptocurrency price data platform CoinMarketCap (CMC), registered 19 at 00:30 UTC on June 28, up one point from the previous day’s figure reported by CoinNess. This signals that the market is currently in Bitcoin Season. The index, which excludes stablecoins and wrapped tokens, compares the performance of the top 100 coins on CMC over the past 90 days. For the market to be in Altcoin Season, at least 75% of these coins need to have outperformed Bitcoin. Conversely, Bitcoin Season occurs when 25% or fewer manage to do so. The index scores range from 1 to 100.

Coinbase stock has emerged as the best performer in the S&P 500 in June, with an increase of 43% for the month, CNBC reported. Coinbase is on track to close higher for a third straight month, marking its first three-month rally since late 2023, according to the news outlet.