The next article is tailored from The Block’s publication, The Day by day, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Glad Thursday! Recent off its weekend dip, the Crypto Concern & Greed Index sank to a report low studying of 5 this morning, in line with The Block’s knowledge dashboard, with sentiment now worse than prior bear market lows.
In at this time’s publication, Customary Chartered sees “extra ache and a closing capitulation interval” for digital asset costs forward, Binance completes the conversion of $1 billion in SAFU reserves to bitcoin, Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase share gross sales high $500 million in 9 months, and extra.
In the meantime, the “clock is ticking” because the crypto invoice’s 2026 destiny hinges on Trump and stablecoin yields, Sarah Wynn experiences.
P.S. Do not forget to take a look at The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC developments. It is an ideal learn — and similar to The Day by day, it is free to subscribe!
Customary Chartered sees bitcoin falling to $50,000, ether to $1,400 earlier than rebound
Customary Chartered warned bitcoin might fall to round $50,000 and ether to $1,400 within the coming months earlier than rebounding later this yr.
- “I believe we’re going to see extra ache and a closing capitulation interval for digital asset costs,” Head of Digital Belongings Analysis Geoffrey Kendrick mentioned in a Thursday be aware.
- The financial institution now sees bitcoin (BTC) reaching $100,000 and ether (ETH) hitting $4,000 by year-end, marking additional downgrades from prior $150,000 and $7,500 targets.
- Customary Chartered additionally lower its 2026 forecasts for SOL, XRP, BNB, and AVAX, largely adjusting them to replicate relative strikes in BTC and ETH.
- Kendrick estimated that exchange-traded fund holdings have fallen by almost 100,000 BTC since October 2025, noting many bitcoin ETF patrons are sitting on unrealized losses close to an equal $90,000 common entry worth.
- He additionally argued macro headwinds and delayed expectations for Fed fee cuts might restrict contemporary crypto inflows till nearer to a possible management change on the central financial institution.
- Regardless of the near-term ache, Kendrick mentioned the downturn seems to be much less extreme than prior cycles and expects digital property to recuperate by way of the remainder of 2026 as institutional participation grows.
Binance finalizes $1 billion SAFU reserve conversion into bitcoin
Binance accomplished the $1 billion conversion of its Safe Asset Fund for Customers, or SAFU, reserve into bitcoin on Thursday, finalizing the transition inside 30 days of its preliminary announcement.
- The crypto alternate purchased a closing 4,545 BTC tranche, bringing the fund’s complete holdings to fifteen,000 BTC valued at roughly $1.005 billion at a $67,000 bitcoin worth.
- Binance additionally printed the fund’s pockets deal with and shared the most recent transaction hash as SAFU shifts from a mixture of crypto and stablecoins into a totally bitcoin-backed reserve.
- The alternate mentioned it would rebalance the fund sooner or later if its worth drops under $800 million attributable to worth volatility, restoring it to the $1 billion goal.
Coinbase shares slip as CEO Armstrong’s inventory gross sales high $500 million in 9 months
Coinbase shares slipped 5.7% on Wednesday as knowledge circulated by VanEck’s Matthew Sigel confirmed that CEO Brian Armstrong has bought roughly $545.7 million price of the inventory over the previous 9 months.
- Primarily based on Bloomberg pricing knowledge, the transaction historical past confirmed Armstrong offloaded greater than 1.5 million shares between April 2025 and January 2026.
- COIN closed at $153.20 on Wednesday and has traded between roughly $142 and $444 over the previous 52 weeks, with the corporate set to report earnings on Thursday.
- The inventory faces combined analyst sentiment, with Goldman Sachs just lately upgrading COIN to a purchase on the alternate’s rising mixture of non-trading income, whereas JPMorgan lower its worth goal, citing decrease buying and selling volumes, softness in crypto costs, and decelerating progress within the stablecoin sector.
Trump-backed World Liberty Monetary to roll out overseas alternate remittance service
Trump-linked crypto mission World Liberty Monetary plans to launch World Swap, a overseas alternate and remittance platform geared toward chopping the price of cross-border transfers, Reuters reported.
- Talking at Consensus Hong Kong, co-founder Zak Folkman positioned the product as a lower-fee various to conventional suppliers.
- The transfer expands the agency’s footprint past its USD1-focused platform World Liberty Markets, which has logged $320 million in lending exercise and greater than $200 million borrowed inside 4 weeks of launch.
- The remittance push lands amid heightened political scrutiny over the Trump household’s crypto ventures, overseas funding ties, and a Home probe right into a reported UAE-linked stake in World Liberty Monetary.
Israeli protection reservist, civilian indicted over alleged insider betting on Polymarket
Israeli prosecutors indicted an IDF reservist and a civilian for allegedly utilizing labeled army intelligence to position bets on the blockchain-based prediction platform Polymarket.
- Authorities charged the pair with critical security-related offenses, bribery, and obstruction of justice following a joint investigation involving the Shin Guess inner safety service, Israel Police, and the Protection Ministry.
- The case follows weeks of scrutiny over unusually correct wagers tied to Israeli army operations and intensifies the broader debate over insider buying and selling dangers on decentralized prediction markets.
Within the subsequent 24 hours
- U.S. CPI inflation knowledge are due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Est. MoM 0.3%; Core 0.3%. Est. YoY 2.5%; Core 2.5%.
- Consensus Hong Kong, Bitcoin Investor Week, and Cayman Crypto Week proceed. EthBoulder will get underway.
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Disclaimer: This text was produced with the help of OpenAI’s ChatGPT/xAI’s Grok and reviewed and edited by our editorial group.
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