## Bitcoin's Tight Trading Range

Bitcoin has been **trapped in a tight trading range** between $69,000 and $71,700 for the past 48 hours, trading recently around $70,100. This comes despite continued conflict in the Middle East that pushed oil back toward $100 per barrel after a sixth ship was reportedly attacked by Iran on the Strait of Hormuz.

![Rising open interest hints at bearish bets](https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F29d96f9e4250c835d84de02f4cd58e9d9093063e-1920x1080.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat&w=3840&q=75)

*Rising open interest hints at bearish bets (Sean Benesh on Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)*

## Derivatives Positioning Tells a Bearish Story

Crypto futures **open interest (OI) has increased by 2% to $102 billion** in the past 24 hours, with bitcoin and ether OI rising by 2% and 4% respectively. However, the real story lies in the details:

- **Annualized perpetual funding rates and cumulative volume delta (CVD) have remained flat to negative**
- This suggests the recent build-up in open interest is being driven more by **defensive, bearish positioning** than by aggressive long-side bets
- On Deribit, bitcoin and ether **put options continue to trade at a premium to call options**, with notable interest in the $20,000 put option
- Bitcoin and ether's 30-day implied volatility indices (BVIV and EVIV) remain steady despite renewed overnight rally in oil

## Altcoins Show Relative Strength

While bitcoin remains range-bound, **altcoins are showing relative strength** despite a risk-off environment in global markets:

- Decentralized finance (DeFi) token **SKY posted a 7.6% gain** over the past 24 hours
- AI-focused **bittensor (TAO) is up by around 4.5%**
- Hyperliquid's **HYPE token gained 9%** in 24 hours, extending its recent bull run
- The altcoin-heavy **CoinDesk 80 (CD80) Index added 2.5%** while the bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 5 (CD5) is up by only 0.9%

One exception has been midnight (NIGHT), which dropped 10% after Tuesday's Binance listing gave holders an off-ramp to sell.

## Market Context and Outlook

U.S. stock futures continued to show weakness with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 index futures both losing around 0.6% overnight. The Dollar Index (DXY) moved back toward 100 after Wednesday's CPI figures, putting a stop to any potential rate cuts.

The altcoin market's next move depends on whether **bitcoin can break out of the current range with a move above $74,000**. A breakout on convincing volume followed by consolidation would likely lead to rotation into more speculative altcoins.

Activity in tether gold (XAUT) continues to cool, with futures OI slipping to the lowest since Feb. 28, showing that gold-linked assets are slowly falling out of favor as the rally in spot gold stalls.

Bitcoin traded around $69,800 as open interest rose to $102 billion, suggesting defensive, bearish bets while altcoins outperformed in a risk-off macro backdrop.

Bitcoin Stuck in $69K-$71K Range as $102B Open Interest Reveals Bearish Bets

## SBF's Political Strategy Backfires

Ever since Donald Trump took office and declared himself a **"pro-crypto president,"** FTX's disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been working to convince the administration that he's a Republican now.

The former Democratic megadonor apparently hopes that a right-wing pivot might help him escape a **25-year prison sentence** ordered after Joe Biden's Department of Justice proved he stole more than **$8 billion from customers** of his cryptocurrency exchange.

These days, Bankman-Fried frequently praises Trump's policies and quotes his Truth Social posts on X, where his bio confirms that posts are: **"SBF's words. Posted through a proxy."** He also regularly rants against Democrats, including Biden officials who, he claimed in a motion for a new trial, intimidated FTX employees into lying on the stand or refusing to testify in order to take down Bankman-Fried as a political foe.

However, Trump has yet to signal that he's considering pardoning Bankman-Fried in light of this new fealty, despite similar pardons for other crypto figures like Binance founder **Changpeng "CZ" Zhao** and Silk Road founder **Ross Ulbricht**. Quite the opposite. Just last month, the White House told Fortune that **"Trump has no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried."**

## DOJ Slams SBF's "Incoherent" Claims

On the back of that disappointment, Trump's DOJ has now confirmed that it's also not falling for Bankman-Fried's MAGA makeover. In a motion urging the court to deny Bankman-Fried's request for a new trial, an attorney for the government, Sean Buckley, slammed the FTX founder for his **"incoherent" attempt to claim "political victimhood."**

Pointing out that Bankman-Fried was **"one of the largest donors to President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign,"** Buckley alleged that Bankman-Fried's abrupt party-swapping was **"a political strategy the defendant pre-planned and committed to in writing before he was convicted, and one he is now executing from prison in an insincere attempt to obtain leniency."**

Bankman-Fried's plan to reinvent himself as a Republican, Buckley noted, was detailed in a Google Document that the court reviewed before convicting Bankman-Fried in 2024.

Buckley said the document showed how, **"in the aftermath of FTX's collapse,"** Bankman-Fried **"mapped out a rehabilitation and pardon campaign."** Attached to an email from Bankman-Fried's account, the Google Doc was marked **"confidential"** and started with a note that emphasized that **"these are all random probably bad ideas that aren't vetted."**

However, many of the ideas were executed as planned, Buckley wrote. For example, Bankman-Fried planned to **"come out as Republican"** in an interview with Tucker Carlson, which happened.

**"In March 2025, the defendant gave an interview to Tucker Carlson in which he portrayed himself as a disaffected Democrat who had become sympathetic to Republicans before his arrest"** and **"suggested his political reorientation contributed to his prosecution,"** Buckley wrote.

Bankman-Fried also, in his document, considered using X to **"come out against the woke agenda"** and push the narrative that he had hidden Republican donations, which also happened.

**"That checklist is being executed with near-perfect fidelity,"** Buckley alleged. However, the plan isn't working, and Bankman-Fried's X posts aren't causing Trump officials to warm to him, he said. **"Evidence, not politics, drove the Government's prosecution of the defendant,"** Buckley insisted.

**"Contrary to his claim that he has been targeted for his politics, the public record establishes unambiguously that the defendant was a major, publicly identified financial supporter of Democratic causes,"** Buckley wrote. Later, he emphasized, **"The motion's suggestion that he was somehow prosecuted because of his party affiliation inverts the factual reality: he was a major donor, not a political adversary."**

## DOJ Rejects SBF's Math, as X Users Troll SBF

Ars could not immediately reach Bankman-Fried for comment. It seems that the FTX founder has dropped his lawyers and plans to defend himself, at least at this stage. Last month, his lawyer mother, Barbara Fried, submitted his pro se motion for the new trial, which Bankman-Fried signed from the federal corrections facility where he is being held in California.

According to Bankman-Fried, he deserves a new trial not only because the government supposedly threatened his colleagues to push an allegedly fake narrative, but also because it was **"false" to say he'd stolen from FTX customers.**

Those who were harmed have since been repaid between 119 and 143 percent of the value of their lost cryptocurrency holdings, Bankman-Fried claimed.

The DOJ clearly found this argument more offensive than Bankman-Fried's posturing as a Republican. Likening Bankman-Fried to a **"bank robber"** who wants to be acquitted because stolen funds were eventually recovered, Buckley singled out that argument as Bankman-Fried's most aggressively misleading claim.

It's **"factually wrong"** to claim that FTX customers have been made whole, Buckley said, since no one got their cryptocurrency back.

Receiving the cash value for crypto holdings at the time of FTX's collapse is not the same as returning cryptocurrencies that, if held today, would be much higher in value, Buckley noted. For example, **Bitcoin was trading at approximately $16,871 when FTX went bankrupt, but now it's trading above $70,000.**

Depending on which tokens customers were holding, the actual reality is that FTX customers only received **"between approximately 10 and 50 percent of the value of the assets they deposited,"** Buckley argued. Also, Bankman-Fried appears not to have considered any of FTX's customers who couldn't wait for bankruptcy proceedings before selling billions of claims **"on the secondary market at steep discounts."**

**"Those customers received neither the nominal 119–143 percent nor anything approaching the actual value of the cryptocurrency they deposited,"** Buckley wrote.

Further, Bankman-Fried cannot rely on a multi-year recovery effort to repay FTX customers to excuse his crimes, Buckley argued, while noting elsewhere that Bankman-Fried's arguments in his motion continue his **"history of lying about the reason for FTX's shortfall."**

**"A defendant who misappropriates property and whose victim is later compensated from unrelated sources has nonetheless committed the underlying offense,"** Buckley wrote.

Reminding the court that the evidence against Bankman-Fried was **"overwhelming,"** Buckley urged the court to deny his bid for a new trial in its entirety.

A grand jury unanimously convicted Bankman-Fried after only five hours of deliberation, Buckley emphasized. And Bankman-Fried offered **"no credible reason"** to believe that **"any prosecutorial decision—from the first grand jury subpoena to the last argument at the trial—was influenced by politics, that any evidentiary ruling reflected political motivation, or that the conduct of the trial deviated in any respect from the ordinary adversarial process."**

**"The notion he was targeted for his Democratic politics by the prior presidential administration is fanciful,"** Buckley wrote.

On X, Bankman-Fried seems to also be struggling to sell himself as a Republican to the platform's right-leaning users. Top comments on his recent posts are full of memes and haters mocking Bankman-Fried's failed comeback.

On one post praising a Trump health care policy that had nothing to do with cryptocurrency, X users even appeared to arbitrarily add a community note to remind anyone who saw the post that **"Sam Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25 year prison sentence after being convicted in November 2023 on 7 counts of fraud and conspiracy. He misappropriated billions in FTX customer deposits."**

SBF is still twisting facts to hide FTX crypto losses, DOJ says to block new trial.

SBF's Desperate MAGA Makeover Fails: Trump's DOJ Rejects FTX Founder's Political Pivot

Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone is doubling down on his controversial prediction that **Bitcoin could drop to $10,000**, but industry analysts are pushing back hard, saying such a collapse would require an **extreme macroeconomic shock** of unprecedented proportions.

### The Bearish Call

In a recent interview, McGlone warned that the **crypto bear market may not be over** and that Bitcoin remains vulnerable if global risk assets reprice sharply. He bases this outlook on broader macroeconomic conditions, arguing that Bitcoin has increasingly traded in tandem with other speculative assets as institutional participation grows, weakening its narrative as an **uncorrelated hedge** against traditional markets.

McGlone believes the crypto sector is trapped in a broader macroeconomic unwind driven by **deflationary pressures**, excess speculative supply, and an unfinished correction in traditional risk markets. "It's a bear market," he said. "Sell rallies."

### Fierce Rebuttals

McGlone's forecast was met with strong rebuttals from several market analysts who agree that further downside for Bitcoin is possible, but see a drop to $10,000 as highly improbable.

Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, offered a colorful critique: "For an asset like Bitcoin, which regularly sees tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in daily trading volume across global markets, to revisit $10,000 we'd need a **global liquidity crisis**, a **nuclear war**, and the **internet to stop working**."

Jason Fernandes, co-founder and market analyst at AdLunam, echoed this sentiment: "A move toward levels like $28,000 would likely require a meaningful contraction in global liquidity, widening credit spreads, or a broader financial stress event rather than just a late-cycle slowdown."

### Current Market Context

Bitcoin is currently hovering around **$70,000**, trading between $69,000 and $71,000. The price rise appeared to coincide with oil quickly reversing most of its session's large gains, dropping $3 per barrel in minutes. Other crypto assets, including **Ether (ETH)**, **Solana (SOL)**, and **XRP**, also saw upward moves.

![Bitcoin price on Wednesday (CoinDesk data)](https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Fa4c2ce0fabddb9872cc1d1313a5b8ed65ce370a4-1433x734.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&w=3840&q=75)

### More Realistic Scenarios

Jonatan Randin, senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, said Bitcoin could see further downside but described the $10,000 prediction as "highly improbable." He expects Bitcoin to gradually drift lower in the coming months, with the next major accumulation zone potentially emerging between **$30,000 and $40,000**.

In the shorter term, however, he expects Bitcoin to remain largely **range-bound between $60,000 and $70,000**, warning that even a rally toward $80,000 could prove temporary if broader macro pressures persist.

### Has the Bottom Already Been Reached?

Greenspan suggested that Bitcoin may have already completed its major bear-market correction: "Structurally, Bitcoin already cleared its major bear market in 2022. We're currently looking at roughly a **50% retracement from the all-time high**, which is not unusual for Bitcoin."

He added that recent price action has been encouraging and that it is "quite possible we've already seen the bottom."

McGlone, however, believes the market still needs to go through a **prolonged cleansing of speculative excess** before a durable bottom can form. "I think it's going to last a while, and I don't think it's going to end until we purge some of these excesses," he said.

Mati Greenspan said a bitcoin collapse to below $10,000 would require a global liquidity crisis, a nuclear war and the internet to stop working.

Bitcoin at $10,000? Analysts Say It Would Take a Nuclear War to Get There

**Strategy** (MSTR) has just executed its largest Bitcoin purchase since mid-January, deploying nearly **$1.3 billion** to acquire **17,994 Bitcoin** at an average price of **$70,946** (including fees and expenses). This massive move comes as Bitcoin has tumbled from its highs, trading in a range of $66,000 to $73,600 over the past week.

### How Strategy Funded This Massive Bitcoin Purchase

Of the $1.28 billion spent last week, Strategy raised **$377 million** from issuing its **STRC preferred stock** – the company's biggest weekly preferred stock issuance since mid-November. The remaining **$899.5 million** (about 70% of the total) came from issuing **6.33 million shares of MSTR stock**.

A closer analysis reveals something crucial: while Strategy's outstanding share count increased by **1.7%**, its Bitcoin holdings rose by **2.5%**. This means **Bitcoin per share actually increased by 0.8%** – but here's the catch: **all of that increase came from the 30% of the transaction funded by preferred stock issuance**, not from the MSTR stock sales.

### The Critical Role of Strategy's Flagship Preferred Stock

Whether Bitcoin per share continues rising depends heavily on demand for **STRC preferred stock**, which Strategy calls its "flagship" preferred issue. Currently trading just above par at **100.04**, STRC's strength is largely due to Strategy's commitment to raise interest rates when it trades below 99 – a situation that has persisted for seven consecutive months.

Strategy has now boosted the offered interest rate to **11.5%**, which raises important questions about the **$10.6 billion premium** investors are giving Strategy compared to its actual Bitcoin holdings worth $51.4 billion.

### The MSTR Stock Premium Dilemma

Despite tumbling **70% from its 52-week high**, MSTR stock's price currently offsets Bitcoin's price without lowering the Bitcoin-per-share metric. However, if Strategy's premium disappears – as it briefly did on February 5 – the Bitcoin buying power of MSTR stock could vanish too.

Consider this scenario: if Bitcoin rises **8% annually**, an investor in a Bitcoin ETF with a 0.25% annual fee would be up **more than 100%** after 10 years. Meanwhile, Strategy would only **break even** on Bitcoin purchased with STRC preferred stock carrying an 11.5% dividend.

### Potential Headwinds on the Horizon

Strategy faces several significant risks:

- **Convertible debt redemption**: Starting in September 2027, Strategy may need to redeem up to **$8.2 billion in convertible debt**, potentially forcing massive new issuance that could pressure stock prices downward.

- **Index exclusion risk**: MSCI is considering whether to evict digital asset treasuries from its indexes, having already frozen share counts for companies like Strategy that use stock issuance to buy cryptocurrencies.

- **The digital gold thesis challenge**: While Strategy has always bet on Bitcoin as a scarce, gold-like asset, the reality has been different – gold prices have soared while Bitcoin fell as much as **50%** in late 2025 and early 2026.

Strategy may have renewed buying power for now, but it may be swimming against powerful market currents.

![Bitcoin Market Analysis](https://www.investors.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Stock-BitcoinGoldHand-01-adobe-640x360.jpg)

<iframe src="https://content.jwplatform.com/manifests/1MEhfsZY.m3u8" width="100%" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

MSTR stock and Strategy' preferred stock issuance — the bitcoin-holding company's two big guns — both have renewed buying power.

Bitcoin Whale's $1.3 Billion Bet: How Strategy's Dual-Pronged Buying Spree Could Reshape Crypto Markets

Ripple has announced plans to acquire BC Payments to secure an **Australian Financial Services License (AFSL)**, aiming to expand its presence in the **Asia Pacific region**. This acquisition will enable Ripple to offer **Ripple Payments**, an end-to-end payments platform that integrates both **traditional banking and crypto services**, managing the full lifecycle of transactions.

In a recent statement, Ripple emphasized that **Australia is a key market**, and obtaining the AFSL will strengthen its ability to scale Ripple Payments across the region. Fiona Murray, managing director of APAC at Ripple, highlighted the importance of this move for regional growth.

The financial terms of the BC Payments acquisition have not been disclosed, but Ripple currently holds over **75 regulatory licenses worldwide**, positioning it strongly to collaborate with institutions seeking digital asset solutions.

This acquisition follows Ripple's recent regulatory achievements, including securing a **full EU Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg** and receiving conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a national trust bank charter.

XRP, created and promoted by Ripple, is currently the **fifth-largest crypto asset globally** with a market capitalization of $85.1 billion. As of the latest data, XRP was trading at $1.39, up 1.3% in the past 24 hours.

Additionally, Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin **RLUSD** has around $1.6 billion in market cap, making it the 10th-largest stablecoin. In January, Ripple partnered with LMAX Group to expand RLUSD's institutional usage.

The license would allow Ripple to offer an end-to-end payments platform in the region, according to the statement.

Bitcoin Articles Published Today

Bitcoin Articles Published Yesterday