Weekly: Bitcoin's New Move, Binance Storm in the EU, and Taiko Hack

While the first cryptocurrency is trying to define its direction, altcoins are showing the first signs of life, and the regulatory field in Europe and the US continues to storm. We gathered the main crypto market events of the week that you might have missed.

Bitcoin: fight for $60,000 and polar forecasts

Charts keep swinging back and forth

The week for the first cryptocurrency was marked by elevated volatility within a broader sideways range. On June 22, BTC broke through the $65,500 mark, but just two days later tested a level below $60,000. The local bottom was recorded at $58,000, after which the asset began a gradual recovery. Bitcoin is currently trading around $60,200.

Bears scare with capitulation, bulls wait for $1 million

Analysts’ sentiment split into two radical camps:

• Too early to celebrate (Doctor Profit & CryptoQuant): popular analyst Doctor Profit believes the final bottom is still ahead. In his view, there will be no real reversal without a high-profile bankruptcy of a major player (like FTX or Celsius) and the final capitulation of miners. The forecast is a drop to $54,000–$56,000, and in the worst-case scenario, to $40,000. CryptoQuant agrees: its Bitcoin Cycle Momentum indicator is in the decline zone (-30).
• Optimism from institutions (Grayscale & BlackRock): Grayscale believes BTC has significantly lagged behind the stock market because of fears of a strict Fed policy. If the rate is not raised, crypto could quickly catch up. At the same time, BlackRock officially recommends allocating 1–2% of an investment portfolio to BTC for diversification.
• Bet on $1,000,000: Blockstream CEO Adam Back is so confident that BTC will grow to $1 million by the end of the current halving cycle (2028) that he has already made a public bet.

Long-term forecast: BTC.TOP mining pool head Jiang Zhuoer and analyst PlanB are looking even further — they expect a global bottom to form around $42,000–$53,000 only at the end of 2026.

Ethereum and altcoins: restructuring and altseason signals

Ethereum Foundation cuts staff by 20%

The organization announced the dismissal of 54 employees as part of a treasury restructuring. The team was divided into specialized clusters (protocol, access, community, etc.).

At the same time, Ethlabs was launched — an independent nonprofit R&D lab that aims to turn Ethereum into a global settlement layer for the digital economy. The initiative has already been supported by BitMine, SharpLink, SNZ Holding and more than 50 top representatives of the crypto community.

Is altseason close?

Glassnode analysts recorded the transition of the Altcoin Cycle Signal indicator into the green zone. Seller pressure on altcoins has dropped significantly, which historically precedes the start of a rally. However, experts call for caution, as other market metrics still do not confirm a full reversal.

📈 Bold target levels:

• AAVE to $3500: Standard Chartered Bank forecasts a 50x rise for the DeFi token AAVE by 2030 thanks to the trend of real-world asset tokenization (RWA).
• HYPE to $319: Multicoin Capital opened a large position in the Hyperliquid ecosystem token with a focus on capitalization by 2028.

Security and incidents: Taiko hacked for $1.7 million

L2 solution Taiko suffered a serious attack — the network state verification mechanism was compromised, putting all ecosystem bridges at risk. Losses have already exceeded $1.7 million.

Cause of the failure: as Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet reported, Taiko developers accidentally published a private RSA key in an open repository on GitHub. Users are urged to immediately withdraw funds from the bridges.

Regulation and geopolitics

• The US bans CBDC until 2031: the US Senate passed a bill that directly prohibits the Fed from issuing or developing a digital dollar (CBDC) at least until December 31, 2030. The document now goes to Donald Trump for signature.
• Europe approved the digital euro: while the US blocks central bank digital currencies, the European Parliament Committee approved the legislative framework for creating the digital euro. The ECB plans to launch a pilot as early as 2027.
• Binance and European licenses: Binance exchange withdrew its MiCAR license application in Greece, calling it a strategic step toward re-registration in another jurisdiction (likely France). At the same time, FT reports that the company advised some EU clients to withdraw assets just in case.
• Scandal around CoinEx: TRM Labs accused the CoinEx exchange of receiving more than $3.84 billion from Iranian platforms in circumvention of sanctions. CoinEx management denies all accusations and says analysts manipulated the data.