British multinational bank Standard Chartered is all set to roll out a trading desk for Bitcoin and Ether. The latest development makes it one of the first global banks to engage in spot cryptocurrency trading.
Standard Chartered has been engaging with players in the digital asset space for quite some time and has also partnered with several entities amidst increased demand for crypto exposure.
Standard Chartered Ventures Into Spot Trading
According to two anonymous sources cited by the latest Bloomberg report, the new crypto desk is nearly operational and will be integrated into the bank’s FX trading unit. One source also revealed that it will based in London.
The bank is yet to confirm its latest initiative but did highlight the growing demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum by

Historically, Bitcoin has played a crucial role in driving market trends. Due to this substantial influence over other cryptocurrencies, BTC has, time and again, served as a primary indicator.
While long-term holders of Bitcoin started liquidating their positions in January, their Ethereum counterparts have been steadily accumulating.
Divergence Among Ethereum Holders
The behavior of long-term holders is crucial for gauging market cycles. As price increases, these investors start offloading their accumulated assets, which, in turn, begins the early stages of a bull market and continues its peak. Instead of following Bitcoin’s lead, a divergence has been witnessed and long-term holders of Ethereum have kept up their accumulation.
According to the latest analysis by

The market may have lacked luster, but investors are comfortably sitting on substantial piles of profit.
Data suggest that profits are heavily focused on large-cap tokens and meme coins, while altcoins have taken a backseat.
The latest findings by IntoTheBlock revealed that Bitcoin (BTC) leads the pack with 89.11% of its holders currently sitting in profit, thereby demonstrating its continued dominance in the market despite the launch of a flurry of different types of tokens in recent years.
Next in line is Ethereum (ETH), which has 83.19% of its holders in profit, reflecting its strong performance, which could be further boosted by the potential introduction of spot Ethereum ETF after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) greenlighted the applications of several

The cryptocurrency market has been lackluster, with top assets trading sideways, showing minimal volatility and limited price movement.
Despite this period of stagnation, data suggests that most of these digital assets are undervalued and have more upside potential.
SHIB, DOGE, ADA Immensely Undervalued
According to Santiment’s latest findings, the 30-day Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio found several assets to be undervalued. A lower MVRV ratio indicates that traders are holding assets at a loss, which historically suggests an increased likelihood of a price rebound as oversold conditions may attract buying interest.
Santiment’s compiled data revealed that Bitcoin (BTC) has an MVRV of -4%, Ethereum (ETH) -4.3%, and XRP -3.5%, all suggesting mild bullish

After making a comeback above $0.50 yesterday, XRP noted a mild decline from the level in the past 12 hours or so.
The brief uptrend, however, wiped its weekly losses, making XRP the only top cryptocurrency in the green during the same period, with a slight rise.
Investors Flock to XRP
In line with the price action, XRP saw a surge in open interest (OI) as traders continued to closely monitor the ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This surge in OI suggests that investors are increasingly opening positions anticipating a rise in XRP’s price, according to CryptoQuant’s latest analysis.
The on-chain analytic platform further observed the heightened trading activity around XRP, which is currently the seventh-largest

There has been a significant shift in the distribution of Dogecoin holdings over the past year.
In fact, a cohort of DOGE whales have slowly reduced their holdings, which, in turn, may have been captured by retail and mid-sized holders of the meme coins.
DOGE Whales’ Distribution
According to the latest analysis by IntoTheBlock, the largest Dogecoin whales – holders owning more than 0.1% of the total supply – have been steadily reducing their positions.
Interestingly, their collective share has decreased from 45.3% to 41.3%. This reduction indicates a redistribution of the OG meme coin, with retail and mid-sized investors now holding a significantly higher portion of the supply.
This aligns with an increase in the supply held by entities with balances between 100 million

Coinbase Ethereum layer-2 network Base has clinched a new record in terms of the number of daily active users on decentralized exchanges (DEX), reaching 270,000 on June 17th.
Compared to the previous day, the figure jumped by approximately 9%.
Uniswap Dominates Base With 85% User Share
According to data compiled by Dune Analytics, with the latest all-time high of active users, Base-powered decentralized exchanges have now surpassed BNB Chain. The Layer 2 network is now behind Solana in terms of user base.
The increased trading activity of meme coins on the Base chain drives this rapid adoption. It is important to note that while meme coins have sparked massive activity on Solana, Base isn’t far behind.
In fact, Base is quickly catching up with the former in emerging as a

Bitcoin has become significantly less volatile in recent times. This is evidenced by the absence of any extreme spikes in price movements in either direction since the completion of the fourth halving.
Such a trend of dwindling volatility signals maturity, according to experts.
Bitcoin Sees Signs of Maturity
Over the past week, bitcoin saw a modest decline of a little over 3%, with selling activity outweighing buying across almost all exchanges. According to Kaiko’s latest findings, the cumulative net trading volume for major BTC trading pairs reached $518 million between June 10th and 14th, with Binance and Bybit witnessing the highest level of selling pressure.
Kaiko stated that although bitcoin experienced price swings as a result of macroeconomic news last week, it

A hawkish-than-expected FOMC meeting drove investors to scale back their exposure to fixed-supply assets, which in turn resulted in digital assets investment products seeing outflows of $600 million.
This represented the largest outflows since March 22, 2024. Moreover, the recent price declines further exacerbated the bearish sentiment, as evidenced in the decrease in total assets under management (AuM), which fell from over $100 billion to $94 billion this week.
Investors Flee Fixed-Supply Assets
Interestingly, the outflows were entirely concentrated on Bitcoin, with the cryptocurrency seeing $621 million in withdrawals, according to the latest edition of CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report. The ongoing bearish sentiment also prompted inflows of $1.8

The price front remains quiet, but Ethereum scaling solutions appear to be thriving. The latest data suggests a surge driven by not just Layer 2 networks but lesser-known Layer 3 entities as well.
According to L2beat, these scaling networks built on top of Ethereum have collectively reached over 246 TPS on June 16, representing a new all-time high. This, in turn, translated to an estimated 21.2 million transactions over the course of the day.
A higher transaction per second (TPS) rate essentially signifies that the blockchain network has the capability to handle a larger volume of users and process a greater number of transactions at the same time. This increased throughout results in faster transaction times.
Leading the chart is Xai, which happens to be an Arbitrum-based

Bitcoin has declined over the past several days as bears remained vigilant near $70,000. As a result, the premier cryptocurrency has shed more than 4% over the past week and was trading near $66,000 at the time of writing.
Interestingly, wallets with 10 or more BTCs have collectively reached their highest holding level in two years. Data suggests that the absence of FTX’s influence may have potentially allowed the market to reflect demand more accurately.
Whale Wallets Mirror Pre-FTX Collapse Levels
According to the latest findings by Santiment, this period has seen bitcoin’s price surge by approximately 226%. To put it into perspective, this group of wallets collectively held 16.16 million BTC, which is 84.8% of the supply back on June 16, 2022.
Zooming out to June 16,

Bitcoin may have struggled to reclaim its position above the recently established all-time high of over $73,000, but prominent brokerage firm Bernstein remains optimistic about the asset’s future trajectory.
In its latest report, Bernstein analysts even upped their long-term price forecast for BTC to $200,000 by the end of 2025. The firm had previously predicted the cryptocurrency to hit $150,000 that year.
Bernstein’s Bold Predictions for Bitcoin
The analysts attributed this renewed bullish outlook primarily to their expectations around the growth of the approved and regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs. They essentially anticipate major asset managers such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Fidelity to continue seeing massive inflows over the next few years.
Bernstein further

Ethereum has continued to face challenges staying above the $4,000 mark, mirroring the lack of momentum in the broader market.
While the investors await for a rally, data suggest a surge in demand for the world’s largest altcoin.
Permanent Ethereum Holders Bought Big
According to CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno’s recent findings, Ethereum’s demand has spiked owing to a significant buying spree by “permanent holders” of the cryptocurrency. In fact, this cohort of holders recorded the second-highest daily purchase volume ever on June 13th after acquiring 298,000 ETH – which is worth more than $1 billion at the current price.
The figure almost touched its highest daily buying by permanent holders on September 11, 2023, when this group of Ethereum investors bought

Bitcoin’s price surged to $70,000 briefly this week but faltered soon after failing to sustain the momentum and took a sharp turn.
At the time of writing, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is trading at just over $67,000. Still, with exchange supply dropping to December 2021 lows, data suggest that a bullish reversal could be in the offing.
Bitcoin Scarcity on Exchanges
According to Santiment’s tweet, bitcoin’s supply on exchanges has reached its lowest since December 2021. Currently, around 942,000 BTC is available on these trading platforms.
Even as bitcoin has been unable to post a meaningful recovery, this reduction in its available supply on exchanges could potentially limit the selling pressure. Such a trend essentially indicates a bullish sentiment among investors

Business intelligence firm and long-time Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy announced plans to offer $500 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2032.
Interestingly, the proceeds of this initiative will be used to buy more Bitcoin and for other corporate purposes.
According to its official announcement, the NASDAQ-listed company also intends to grant initial buyers of the notes an option to purchase up to an additional $75 million in principal amount of the notes within 13 days starting from the issuance date.
The notes in question will be unsecured senior obligations of the company, accruing interest payable semi-annually on June 15th and December 15th each year, starting from December 15th, 2024.
The notes will mature on June 15th, 2032, unless they

ENA – the native token of Ethena – has been facing significant selling pressure in recent weeks. After an extended period of price declines, ENA plunged to $0.73, representing its weakest price level since May 20th.
This, in turn, has translated to huge losses for ENA stakers.
Lookonchain revealed that the largest ENA staker, who had staked 23.24 million ENA – worth around $17.3 million – unstaked their entire holding on Tuesday. In a surprising move, this whale then sold 19.36 ENA – worth over $14.1 million – at a significant loss.
To put things into perspective, the on-chain data also revealed that this investor had initially withdrawn 23.24 million ENA from Binance between April 5 and April 10, when the token was trading at around $1.29. However, after the recent

Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market experienced a notable surge following the release of the latest US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, and now eyes are on tonight’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Bitcoin and Ethereum posted gains of 3.4% and 2.43% over the past 24 hours, respectively. The crypto market remains uncertain, with BTC hovering at around $70,000, Ethereum struggling to get past $4,000, and investors treading with caution. However, there has been a notable shift in market sentiment, especially among retail traders on Binance.
Retail Investors’ Long Positions
According to Hyblock’s latest findings, 70.25% of accounts on crypto exchange Binance hold net long positions on Bitcoin, a significant increase from 57% just 24 hours prior.

OKX has experienced significant outflows, with $204 million withdrawn in the past 24 hours and $630 million in the past week, surpassing the outflows of other prominent cryptocurrency exchanges.
The surge in withdrawals comes from multiple security controversies that may have undermined user confidence.
OKX’s Design Flaw
On June 9, two OKX users lost a significant amount of funds in a suspected SIM-swapping attack due to a vulnerability in the exchange’s two-factor authentication (2FA) security system, which resulted in their accounts being compromised.
Blockchain security firm SlowMist founder Yu Xian claimed that the users were sent SMS risk notifications from Hong Kong just before a new API key was established for their account verification.
This was further validated

Since Dogecoin’s debut in 2013, the meme coin market has seen significant growth, reaching a total market cap of $60 billion by June 2024.
In March alone, the asset class attracted a whopping $13 billion in spot trading volumes on exchanges, surpassing major blue-chip cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Solana. However, this sector is grappling with risks.
Red Flags Identified in Meme Coin Investments
According to CoinShares’ latest report, the heavy concentration of assets among meme coin holders highlights a notable risk of market manipulation and liquidity challenges due to the significant asset concentration among a few holders.
Larger holders or whales can significantly impact the token’s price by making large trades, causing volatility. Furthermore, if a small

The weekend dump dragged Litecoin’s price below $80 as the cryptocurrency experienced significant sell pressure.
The accumulation over the past couple of weeks failed to drive the price higher, but the latest data suggest two potentially bullish indicators for the altcoin, predicting a recovery.
Litecoin’s Active Addresses Spike
According to the popular crypto analytic platform, Santiment, the number of addresses interacting on the Litecoin network more than doubled starting from June 4th. This increase in active addresses, from an average of around 345k in May to around 704k in the past week, suggests a significant uptick in network activity and adoption, which is generally considered a positive sign.
Santiment’s insights further indicate that Litecoin’s RSI has entered

Ethereum witnessed its strongest week in terms of capital inflow since March, with total inflows amounting to $69 million over the past week, as per the latest stats by CoinShares. The latest influx can be attributed to the surprise decision by the US Securities and Exchange (SEC) to allow spot Ether ETFs.
As a result, Ethereum’s YTD inflows surged to almost $81 million.
The improvement in investment products based on Ethereum had a significant impact on other digital asset products, attracting a staggering $2 billion. This subsequently resulted in the recent 5-week streak of inflows to $4.3 billion.
Bitcoin Still King with $1.97B Weekly Inflow
Ethereum products may have overshadowed Bitcoin for the past few weeks, but the latter remained the main attraction, with weekly

Family offices, known for their entrepreneurial spirit, are embracing new investment opportunities.
Though cryptocurrencies account for 5% of portfolios, an allocation that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, they remain strikingly split over the role of the asset class.
According to the recently published 2024 BNY Mellon Wealth Management Study, approximately 39% of the surveyed family offices are either actively investing in cryptocurrencies or considering them, highlighting a keen interest in this modern asset class.
Various motivations are driving the investment decisions of family offices exploring cryptocurrencies. More than half cite the desire to stay current with emerging investment trends and opportunities.
Additionally, 30% or more attribute their interest

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) indicted Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of Epoch Times, on Tuesday.
The DOJ alleges that Guan was involved in an international scheme to launder around $67 million of illicit funds using cryptocurrency.
The Scam
From 2020 to May 2024, Bill Guan engaged in a large-scale international money laundering scheme, collaborating with others to launder approximately $67 million of illegal funds into the bank accounts of his media company and its related entities, according to the official press release by DOJ.
Guan managed the company’s “Make Money Online” (MMO) team, operating from a foreign office, to facilitate the scheme. Under his direction, the team used cryptocurrency to purchase tens of millions of dollars in illicit proceeds,

California-based med-tech company Semler Scientific has announced purchasing an additional 247 BTC for an aggregate of $17 million in cash, inclusive of fees and expenses.
As of June 6, 2024, Semler holds a total of 828 bitcoins, which were acquired for an aggregate of $57 million, inclusive of fees and expenses.
Preps $150M Bitcoin Warchest
In a new filing, the Nasdaq-listed medical manufacturer also revealed looking to raise $150 million to buy more bitcoins in the future, a strategy that aligns with the expansion of its corporate structure.
While highlighting the gap in value between gold and BTC, Semler Scientific said it believes the latter has the potential to generate outsize returns as it gains increasing acceptance as “digital gold.”
The firm believes that

Friday’s NFP release will be a pivotal event in shaping market sentiment and determining the near-term trajectory of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to Bitfinex analysts.
In a statement to CryptoPotato, the macroeconomic dynamics, including the ECB’s rate cut and the potential for increased liquidity, add further complexity to the equation, making it crucial for market participants to closely monitor these developments and their potential impact on the crypto markets.
Several Factors at Play
Bitfinex analysts have shared their perspectives on how the NFP data and the recent European Central Bank (ECB) rate cut might influence the crypto markets.
According to the cryptocurrency exchange, if the NFP report meets or falls short of expectations, it could confirm

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has dismissed claims that the network suffers from weak fundamentals.
He criticized media outlets for their continued negative portrayal of the ecosystem, asserting a stark contrast between the reality of Cardano’s progress and the media’s depiction.
Cardano Founder Refutes Media’s Gloomy Forecasts
In a sharp rebuke this week, Hoskinson accused the media of wrongly predicting the downfall of the blockchain network and affirmed that the ecosystem is here to stay.
Hoskinson highlighted the significant advancements made by Cardano over the years and outlined a major hard fork in the offing, which he described as the most significant in the project’s history.
He pointed to the rapid growth of community DApps, Cardano’s role in scaling research

Following the recent recovery in the market, certain altcoins have become appealing to buyers, with wealthy investors even beginning to stockpile these assets before prices potentially surge.
Cardano (ADA), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and JasmyCoin (JASMY) are experiencing notable price surges, each seemingly driven by increased whale activity.
Whales Pile In
This week, transactions exceeding $100k on these networks have more than doubled compared to their average figures for 2024, suggesting a significant accumulation phase.
According to Santiment’s latest analysis, the surge in large transactions indicates heightened interest from large-scale investors, contributing to the upward momentum in prices for these cryptocurrencies.
The latest development comes amidst an increased

Since mid-March, there has been a notable trend of large bitcoin holders or “whales” stashing more tokens.
The latest data suggest that a particular cohort of whale addresses now collectively own more than 40% of the total bitcoin supply.
Whales Gobble Up Bitcoin Supply
The accumulation of bitcoin by large holders or “whales” holding over 1,000 BTC has been a notable trend since mid-March. According to IntoTheBlock’s tweet, addresses with over 1,000 BTC now collectively own more than 40% of the total bitcoin supply.

Since mid-March, the amount of Bitcoin held by large holders has steadily increased.
Addresses holding over 1,000 $BTC now collectively own more than 40% of the total Bitcoin supply! pic.twitter.com/yGkTTFj20c
— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) June 5, 2024

This

With meme coins creating buzz all year, whales have doubled down on accumulating these tokens.
One such whale has been massively accumulating Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens, spending 4,849 ETH, worth around $18.44 million, to purchase a whopping 715.9 billion SHIB over the span of just six hours.
This is an extraordinary buying spree, even for this particular investor, who has been incredibly successful with SHIB in the past.
SHIB Accumulation Spree
According to Lookonchain’s analysis, this same trader had previously spent only around $400,000 to acquire 5.5 trillion SHIB tokens early on. They then sold those holdings at two separate peak points for a combined total of approximately $121 million – netting them over $120 million in profits from their initial SHIB investment.
The

Austrian crypto broker Bitpanda has expanded its partnership with Deutsche Bank to implement real-time payment solutions for user transactions in Germany.
Through an API integration, Bitpanda will gain access to German IBAN accounts, streamlining the deposit and withdrawal process for German users.
Bitpanda’s German IBAN Integration
International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) are internationally agreed codes that identify bank accounts across national borders. They provide a standardized way to identify accounts, allowing easy cross-border transactions and payments.
By integrating German IBANs, Bitpanda seeks to enhance the reliability and speed of deposit and withdrawal transactions for its users in that region.
According to the official press release, this move represents