Bitcoin experienced a rollercoaster week, while in Russia, digital assets were classified as objects of theft, and the EU regulator reminded businesses about MiCA, among other events.

Bitcoin Returns to $64,000

At the start of the week, the price of digital gold surged from around $64,000 to a local peak of $67,278 (on Binance). The main catalyst for this upward movement was news of a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

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

However, observers remained cautiously optimistic about the prospects of a potential agreement amid emerging disagreements between the parties. Bearish factors, such as weak demand, also exerted pressure on the price. Following the first meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh's leadership on Thursday, Bitcoin's price fell below $64,000. The regulator maintained the key interest rate at 3.5-3.75% per annum, and the head of the agency even suggested the possibility of a rate hike by the end of the year.

On Friday, June 19, the price dropped to $62,000, driven down by renewed uncertainty regarding the situation in the Middle East. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance postponed a trip to Switzerland that was planned for signing an agreement with Iran.

However, over the weekend, the cryptocurrency rebounded to slightly above $64,000 after the American delegation finally departed for negotiations. Experts noted that falling oil prices also contributed to this rebound, attracting investments into riskier assets.

As a result of these fluctuations, Bitcoin's price remained virtually unchanged over the week. This allowed several major altcoins to significantly outperform the leading cryptocurrency. Solana rose by 8.6%, Ethereum by 3.5%, and the Hyperliquid token surged nearly 12%.

Source: CoinMarketCap.

The waning interest from investors in Bitcoin was confirmed by a record outflow from spot ETFs over six weeks. Since mid-May, these products have collectively lost approximately $5.43 billion, reducing total capital to $78.3 billion, a level not seen since November 2024.

Source: SoSoValue. 

About $10 million was withdrawn from Ethereum funds over the week, continuing a negative trend for six consecutive periods.

Source: SoSoValue.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index rose from 18 to 23 points. While the metric remains in the range of extreme investor fear, it has approached its upper limit.

Source: Alternative.me.

The total market capitalization remained around $2.2 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance slightly decreased from approximately 59% to 58.4%, while Ethereum's share increased by 0.3% to 9.5%.

Russian Supreme Court Recognizes Cryptocurrency as Object of Theft

On June 16, the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation amended a 2002 ruling regarding judicial practice in cases of theft, robbery, and banditry. Digital rubles, digital rights, and digital currency were added to the list of objects of theft.

The Supreme Court also clarified the moment when the theft of cash is considered complete: the crime is deemed finished when the money is debited from the victim's account.

When qualifying theft from a bank account or electronic funds, the court must recognize only cashless funds in accounts or electronic money as objects of such crimes.

If money from one victim is stolen through several consecutive debits, but the actions are united by a single intent, this should be regarded as one continuous crime.

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Developer Warns of Funding Crisis Risk for Ethereum

The Ethereum ecosystem may face a "slowly escalating funding crisis" in the next three to nine months, according to former Ethereum Foundation employee Trent Van Epps.

He stated that current risks are tied to the EF's philosophy, which involves moving away from a single center of power. However, legitimacy still concentrates around the foundation for various reasons.

The former employee identified two pressure factors on funding:

  • Treasury constraints. In June 2025, the foundation announced plans to reduce annual expenses from 15% to a baseline of 5% by 2030;
  • End of the Client Incentive Program in April 2026. This four-year program was a key funding mechanism for client teams through staking, and there is currently no replacement.

According to Van Epps, the Ethereum ecosystem requires approximately $30 million for developer funding.

Without stable funding, the ecosystem risks losing individuals with critical expertise, falling behind in scaling and preparing for challenges like quantum computing, and jeopardizing the reliability of the main network, concluded Epps.

ESMA Demands Unlicensed Crypto Platforms Exit the EU

Starting July 1, crypto companies without a MiCA license must cease servicing clients from the European Union, as reminded by ESMA.

The regulator has required service providers to prepare a business winding-down plan in advance.

According to Hogan Lovells, by May, only 194 companies had received official approval. This is a small fraction of the 3,000 firms that previously operated in the region. It is expected that around 75% of old platforms will close or exit the European market.

For regular users, this means account blocking. Unlicensed exchanges will stop accepting deposits and will require users to withdraw their funds. 

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Ethereum Proposes Post-Quantum Account Protection for $0.07

Nicolas Consigny, head of the Kohaku project at the Ethereum Foundation, introduced a concept for protecting accounts from quantum computer attacks. The solution, called SPHINCS-, will secure wallets without requiring a hard fork.

The cost of implementing this protection will be around $0.07. The method is based on the SPHINCS+ signature standard developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

Consigny adapted the algorithm for effective operation within the Ethereum network. SPHINCS- does not require protocol changes and will serve as an intermediate step before launching the leanSPHINCS system, which will further reduce costs through data aggregation.

This new solution aims to eliminate risks associated with the digital signature algorithm based on elliptic curves currently used by the network.

What Else to Read?

We broke down how to manually analyze Bitcoin transactions, streamline the process using tools and automation, and why even the most advanced tracing provides probabilities rather than certainties.

We examined the situation in Cardano amid discussions of a deep crisis in the blockchain project and its prospects. Details were shared by a former IOG employee — the protocol's developer company, now a professor of cybersecurity at the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics, Roman Oleynikov.

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