Bitcoin has broken through the $60,000 level, Bloomberg predicts the "coldest" crypto winter, and Buterin proposes a model for resilient synthetic assets, among other events from the past week.

The leading cryptocurrency started the week by breaching the $70,000 mark. Key factors pressuring the price included escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, as well as the sale of part of its reserves by Strategy.

Prices continued to decline, and by the evening of June 5, Bitcoin fell below $60,000.

Hourly chart of BTC/USD on Binance. Data: TradingView.

Following a subsequent rebound, the price returned to around $62,000, attempting to hold that level.

Over the week, digital gold lost 15.4% of its value.

Source: CoinMarketCap.

Some of the largest altcoins experienced even steeper declines. Solana's price dropped by 20.5%, Ethereum by 18.6%, and BNB lost 18%. The Hyperliquid token ended its rally, falling 13.5%, but remained in ninth place by market capitalization, as Dogecoin fell by 15.2%.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs continued to see outflows for the fourth consecutive week, totaling $1.72 billion.

Source: SoSoValue.

In the previous three weeks, the outflow volume from these products gradually increased: $1 billion, $1.26 billion, and $1.42 billion, respectively.

Ethereum funds also showed negative dynamics, losing $168.2 million. However, the outflow from these products is not escalating: in previous weeks, it was $255 million, $216 million, and $241.4 million.

Source: SoSoValue.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index predictably plummeted from 28 to 12 points, deeply entering the zone indicating extreme investor fears.

Source: Alternative.me.

The total market capitalization fell to $2.14 trillion, a drop of about 17%. Bitcoin's dominance decreased from 59.3% to 58%, while Ethereum's share fell to 9.2%.

Bloomberg Predicts the "Coldest" Crypto Winter in History

The digital asset industry is experiencing its most severe downturn due to a combination of factors. According to Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, hosts of Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast, the current period is characterized not just by falling prices but also by a "loss of faith" and a systemic crisis of ideas.

Weisenthal emphasized that while Bitcoin has seen deeper drops in the past, the current situation is marked by market participants' demoralization. Key reasons identified by the experts include:

  • Collapse of protective narratives: Bitcoin has failed to confirm its status as an inflation hedge—amid dollar instability, investors preferred gold;
  • Competition with AI: The artificial intelligence sector has begun to actively absorb capital, engineering talent, and investor attention. Additionally, miners are forced to compete with AI data centers for electricity;
  • Institutionalization issues: The launch of spot ETFs and mainstream acceptance has deprived the market of its "early-stage" development argument. Meanwhile, Wall Street's interest has shifted from trading activity to stablecoins and tokenization;
  • Technological risks: The hosts mentioned the threat posed by quantum computing to cryptographic security and pressure from corporate holders who may begin to liquidate their holdings.

The situation is exacerbated by an "identity crisis" amid a lack of new growth drivers. According to Weisenthal and Alloway, even the launch of powerful models like Claude 4.6 from Anthropic and GPT-5.3 from OpenAI is overshadowing the crypto sphere, leaving it in the shadow of technological progress.

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Central Bank of Russia Limits Unqualified Investors to BTC, ETH, and USDT

The Bank of Russia does not plan to expand the list of cryptocurrencies available to unqualified investors or increase investment limits in such assets following the implementation of new regulations, stated First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin.

According to him, initially, only three of the most liquid assets—Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT—will be available to unqualified investors.

Chistyukhin noted that a provision allowing the Bank of Russia to expand the list was added to the bill before the second reading. However, the regulator does not intend to use this option at the outset.

The Central Bank continues to view cryptocurrencies as high-risk instruments—with high volatility and the risk of being blocked. In such conditions, Chistyukhin emphasized, investments by unqualified investors in crypto assets "should not be a priority." The investment limit for this category is also not planned to change—300,000 rubles through a single professional participant.

Vitalik Buterin Describes a Model for Resilient Synthetic Assets

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented a concept for recreating synthetic assets based on options instead of traditional debt positions.

He believes this approach will eliminate forced liquidations and reduce dependence on high-speed oracles.

The developer noted that current DeFi protocol models are vulnerable during sharp market downturns. The use of secured debt leads to cascading liquidations, creating excessive pressure on the network and market prices.

The proposed scheme is based on a pair of assets (P and N) with a strike price S and expiration date M. They are issued by splitting 1 ETH and can be redeemed at any time. At expiration, an oracle fixes the index value, and funds are distributed between the holders of P and N.

To maintain stable exposure (e.g., pegged to the dollar), Buterin suggested using deeply profitable options with regular automatic rebalancing through DAO or local scripts.

Also on ForkLog:

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  • Aave tightened its listing criteria following the rsETH incident involving $293 million.
  • Citi forecasted the tokenization market to grow to $5.5 trillion.

A White Hat Hacker Unlocked $2 Million in a 2016 Smart Contract

Nearly nine years after the failed ICO of the HongCoin project, a white hat hacker under the pseudonym Florent unlocked 1003.62 ETH (about $2 million).

The funds were stuck in the HONG smart contract deployed on August 29, 2016. The sale did not meet the minimum target, and investors were supposed to have their Ethereum automatically returned. However, due to a critical error in the refund function, the coins became frozen.

The mechanism rejected user requests if their balance exceeded the value of the global counter.

Florent discovered a vulnerability in the contract's administrative function, written in Solidity v0.3.5. Older versions of the language lacked protection against integer overflow. The hacker found that a specific function call could zero out an address's balance, allowing the function check to pass successfully.

Since access to the admin function was restricted by a multisig from the HongCoin team, the researcher contacted the developers. Together, they executed 41 transactions to unlock the addresses of 48 investors.

What Else to Read?

We explored why, with digital transformation and AI development, the internet is ceasing to be a space for people, and whether the "cozy" Web 1.0 could become a form of resistance.

We examined the phenomenon of the surge in popularity of perpetual contracts and answered the question: why do these instruments turn the market into a casino.

We focused on Cuba, where over 10 million people live under financial isolation, and authorities have begun legalizing cryptocurrencies for foreign trade.

We compiled the most notable security events of the week in our traditional digest.