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Binance founder CZ recently accepted an interview with CoinDesk, sharing his views on multiple topics. CZ attributes the 2026 crypto bear market to a combination of three factors: the shift of funds to the AI sector, geopolitical tensions, and the four-year cycle pattern.Regarding the strategy for Binance.US, CZ expressed a desire for the platform to access the liquidity of Binance Global to strengthen its competitiveness in the U.S. market. He also revealed that although his previous trip to Washington, D.C. was to clarify misunderstandings about himself and Binance, he believes that the violation of the Bank Secrecy Act has not harmed his business reputation. CZ clearly stated that he will not take the helm of a crypto trading platform again and prefers to participate in the operations of his investment companies in an informal advisory capacity.In terms of crypto regulatory legislation, negotiations on the U.S. "Clarity Act" are still ongoing, but core ethical clause disagreements remain unresolved, and any agreement requires the president's signature. The Senate has only 20 working days left before September 1, and the legislative window continues to narrow.

On-chain detective ZachXBT stated that during the migration from the traditional private messaging system to XChat, the X platform encountered multiple technical bugs. At the same time, the reliability of the platform's search function declined, affecting information retrieval efficiency. More importantly, the X platform's algorithm has a "traffic bottleneck" for cryptocurrency content, making it easier for content to be restricted within the cryptocurrency vertical, thereby reducing the ability to reach a broader audience.

According to data from CryptoRank.io, the total TVL of global liquid staking protocols fell to $33.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a decrease of 56.1% from the historical high of $76 billion in the third quarter of 2025, marking three consecutive quarters of decline.Specifically, the fourth quarter of 2025 was $61.4 billion, the first quarter of 2026 was $45.2 billion, and the second quarter further dropped to $33.4 billion. The liquid staking sector continues to face pressure, reflecting that the overall DeFi ecosystem is still in a weak cycle.

According to Gate market data, spot gold rose short-term by 15 dollars, breaking through 4060 dollars/ounce, with an intraday increase of 0.83%.

According to Cointelegraph, a study based on 857,000 active users of Polymarket shows that about 60% of users who placed their first bets during the World Cup had never interacted with blockchain protocols before.Alvin Kan, Chief Operating Officer of Bitget Wallet, stated that prediction markets have changed the traditional logic for crypto users to get involved—users no longer need to understand blockchain technology first, but can participate directly because they have opinions on real-world events. This has made prediction markets a new entry point for some users into the crypto space.Data shows that the trading volume of Polymarket's World Cup champion contracts has exceeded $3.1 billion, with sports contracts contributing over $4.9 billion in trading volume to Polymarket in the past 30 days, and reaching $8.5 billion on Kalshi, becoming the main trading category on both platforms.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, address 0x0965 sold 27,585 ETH at an average price of $1,625 over the past 2 days after being inactive for 7 years, worth $44.84 million, with profits exceeding $390 million. The profit of this giant whale once exceeded $130 million.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, after being dormant for 7 years, the whale address "0x096" sold all 27,585 ETH at an average price of $1,625, obtaining 44.84 million USDS, and ultimately locked in a profit of $39.1 million.

The Ethereum treasury company Sharplink stated on platform X that since launching the ETH treasury strategy, the company's total staking rewards have reached 22,102 ETH.In addition, the Ethereum staking rewards obtained by the company last week amounted to 509 ETH.

According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum is embroiled in a fierce governance debate over the source of core development funding. Last Friday, former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps warned that as old support programs deplete and foundation expenditures shrink, the core development ecosystem could face a "slow-burning funding crisis" within three to nine months, requiring approximately $30 million annually to maintain over a dozen clients, research, and coordination teams.The core of the debate stems from the "validator redirect income" proposal put forward by Kleros co-founder Clément Lesaege, which suggests redirecting 0% to 10% of validator rewards to an ecosystem funding pool, estimated to generate about 50,000 to 70,000 ETH annually at current staking levels. This proposal has faced widespread opposition, with critics warning that it could entrench the power of large validators and blur the boundaries between operations and governance. Some community members previously countered that the foundation's funds are sufficient to operate for 30 years, but the foundation's actual decisions indicate that it is actively shrinking expenditures and pushing for diversified funding models.On Monday, a nonprofit organization called EthLabs was announced, initiated by five former Ethereum Foundation researchers, aiming to directly fund development through large ETH holders. On Tuesday, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the foundation is cutting its budget by about 40% according to established policies and has recently laid off 54 people.

The Ethereum community is debating the proposal to tax staking rewards. The newly established EthLabs has received support from institutions such as BitMine, providing off-chain funding alternatives for ecological development.

According to Cointelegraph, three major crypto lobbying organizations—the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Innovation Council, and the Digital Chamber of Commerce—jointly wrote to the U.S. Congress, requesting the unaltered passage of the "Mining and Staking Tax Clarity Act" without further amendments. The bill allows miners and stakers to choose to pay taxes either when they receive crypto rewards or when they sell their assets, aiming to address liquidity issues caused by "taxation on phantom income."Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford proposed an amendment to limit the deferral of crypto reward taxes to five years, but the CEO of the Crypto Innovation Council stated that the amendment would "undermine" the bill and only generate "negligible revenue." The American Bankers Association opposes the bill, claiming it gives cryptocurrencies a "significant advantage," while crypto lobbying groups believe that renegotiating the already reached compromise will "revive the issues the bill aims to resolve."

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a certain whale spent 16.555 million USDC on June 20 to buy 234,900 SOL, with an average purchase price of 70.5 dollars, and sold out early this morning at an average price of 72.6 dollars, making a profit of 513,000 dollars over two and a half days, with a return rate of 3%.

According to CoinDesk, major lobbying organizations in the U.S. cryptocurrency industry jointly sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee, urging the advancement of the "Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act," advocating for tax treatment options for cryptocurrency miners and staking income recipients. The bill was introduced by Republican Congressman Mike Carey, and its core content allows taxpayers to choose the timing of taxation when they receive new mining or staking assets—either paying taxes at the time the assets are generated or deferring taxes until the final sale.Industry associations, including the Blockchain Association, Digital Chamber, and Crypto Council for Innovation, have expressed support, arguing that the current tax system may force users participating in network security maintenance to bear tax burdens before they have realized the assets. Supporters claim that the proposal does not provide "indefinite deferral," but rather avoids immediate taxation on income that has not yet realized liquidity, thereby alleviating cash flow pressure on miners and validators.However, Democratic lawmakers and some external critics are concerned that this mechanism could be exploited by large mining companies for long-term tax deferral, especially in the context of some publicly listed or politically connected companies participating in mining operations, raising potential policy arbitrage disputes. Meanwhile, the industry's focus remains on the broader "Digital Asset Market Structure Act" (Clarity Act), but tax issues have become the second key battleground, expected to continue advancing in tandem with regulatory framework legislation in the coming weeks.

Members of the management team of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and CSA Operator Aerugo published a systematic explanation of EF's mission. Aerugo stated that EF's core mission is to ensure that Ethereum becomes and continues to be a truly permissionless sovereign infrastructure: censorship-resistant, capture-resistant, open-source, private, and secure, capable of supporting large-scale trustless coordination.He emphasized that EF's focus is on eliminating extraction and capture risks that may arise at the protocol layer of Ethereum, particularly the two core challenges of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) issues and the lack of default privacy. Aerugo described MEV as "the main battleground of the next cypherpunk war," and pointed out that "a public ledger without serious default privacy is a monitoring infrastructure with settlement guarantees."In addition, EF will move some of its work out of the foundation through spin-offs in the future, but will maintain strict standards for external funding. The recent departure of some personnel is part of normal organizational adjustments, and EF will handle it in a dignified manner without making personnel issues public.

According to SoSoValue data, as of 8 AM Eastern Time on June 22, 2026, the total net purchase of Bitcoin by global listed companies (excluding mining companies) for the week was $86.03 million, a decrease of 13.97% compared to last week.Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) spent approximately $34.9 million last week to purchase 520 Bitcoins at a price of $67,068, increasing its total holdings to 847,363 Bitcoins.The Japanese listed company Metaplanet did not purchase any Bitcoin last week, marking nine consecutive weeks without purchases.Additionally, four other companies purchased Bitcoin last week. The Japanese food brand DayDayCook announced on June 17 that it spent $7.43 million to purchase 95 Bitcoins at an undisclosed price, bringing its total holdings to 2,899 Bitcoins; the Brazilian Bitcoin company OrangeBTC announced on June 21 that it invested $1.15 million to purchase 18 Bitcoins at a price of $64,121, increasing its total holdings to 3,822 Bitcoins; the asset management company Strive announced from June 15 to June 21 that it spent $49.98 million to purchase 759 Bitcoins at a price of $65,850, raising its total holdings to 19,864 Bitcoins.As of the time of writing, the total amount of Bitcoin held by the global listed companies (excluding mining companies) in the statistics is 1,142,276 Bitcoins, an increase of 1.87% compared to last week, with a current market value of approximately $7.417 billion, accounting for 5.7% of the circulating market value of Bitcoin.

According to an open letter released by The Blockchain Association, multiple organizations related to cryptocurrency and blockchain have written to Jason Smith, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, and senior member Richard Neal, supporting the passage of H.R. 9175, the "Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act," as originally proposed by Congressman Mike Carey.The joint letter states that the bill provides a compromise solution for the taxation timing and nature of PoW mining and PoS staking rewards under the "self-created assets" tax framework, avoiding immediate taxation on "unrealized gains" and reducing forced selling and compliance burdens. It also opposes the addition of additional clauses such as a five-year mandatory confirmation in the existing text, urging Congress to legislate as soon as possible to stabilize the tax expectations for blockchain validation activities in the United States.

According to CoinDesk, the Ethereum research forum has released a new proposal introducing the "validator redirect revenue" mechanism, allowing validators to redirect 0% to 10% of staking rewards to fund ecosystem infrastructure and public goods. If a majority of validators support a certain percentage, that percentage will be enforced for all validators. Based on current staking levels, a redirect of 5% to 10% could bring approximately 50,000 to 70,000 ETH to the ecosystem each year, equivalent to about 120 million dollars.The proposal aims to address the long-standing "free-rider" problem in Ethereum, but it has also raised concerns about the risks of validators jointly manipulating the flow of funds and the misalignment of interests between staking operators and ETH holders. The proposal is currently still in the discussion phase and has not yet entered the formal voting process.

Samsung Electronics announced the deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise and Codex to all its employees in South Korea and employees in the global Device Experience (DX) department. This collaboration is one of OpenAI's largest enterprise-level deployments to date.It is reported that Samsung Electronics plans to widely apply these AI tools in core business areas such as software development, product research and development, marketing, and manufacturing, covering both technical and non-technical positions, to enhance employee productivity and problem-solving capabilities. This deployment also marks the expansion of Samsung's partnership with OpenAI from the early stage of AI infrastructure (advanced memory semiconductor supply) to the enterprise-wide AI office application level.

According to the official announcement, Gate has officially launched the USD1 on-chain staking product, further enriching the USD1 earning scenarios. Users can participate in staking with a minimum of just 1 USD1 and obtain real on-chain earnings with one click. Currently, the reference annualized yield for USD1 on-chain staking is 13.41%. In addition, the reference annualized interest rate for holding Gate USD1 is currently 8%, providing users with diversified earning options. According to DefiLlama data, the holding scale of Gate USD1 has surpassed 908 million USD.In addition to USD1, Gate also offers multi-currency on-chain staking services. As of the time of publication, the reference annualized yields are: GUSD 2.80%, BTC 2.67%, ETH 4.18%, SOL 8.01%, and USDT 3.47%. Users can flexibly participate in on-chain earning opportunities based on their asset allocation needs to obtain stable earning opportunities.

According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin has dropped about 40% since Strategy launched the Bitcoin financing tool STRC. STRC has fallen below the $100 par value, sparking discussions in the market about the sustainability of Michael Saylor's Bitcoin "flywheel" model. Strategy currently holds over 846,000 BTC, but the recent buying pace has noticeably slowed. Data shows that the company increased its holdings by 1,550 BTC worth approximately $101 million in the week ending June 8; in the week ending June 15, it added another 1,587 BTC worth about $100 million. In contrast, in April 2026, it bought 34,164 BTC in a single week, amounting to $2.54 billion, indicating a significant decrease in recent capital inflows.Meanwhile, Strategy previously sold 32 BTC to meet dividend obligations. Although this amount is small compared to its overall holdings, the market believes this indicates that when STRC's financing efficiency declines, the company's cash flow pressure may increase. STRC was originally designed as a preferred stock tool trading close to the $100 par value, attracting investors through dividend adjustments and helping Strategy raise funds to purchase Bitcoin. Currently, the STRC price has fallen to a historical low, having once dropped to $82.53, and then closed at $88.59, about 13% below par value. Critics argue that the STRC price falling below par value means that Strategy's financing channels are under pressure.Long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff described STRC as "like a typical centralized Ponzi structure," believing that the model relies on continuous financing or selling Bitcoin to maintain operations. Crypto trader DonAlt also questioned STRC's recent performance, stating that its trading behavior resembles a "Ponzi structure." However, some analysts believe that the decline in STRC is more due to leveraged liquidations rather than a deterioration in Strategy's fundamentals. STRC had previously maintained a price around $99 to $100, attracting investors to use leveraged trading, and the price falling below this critical level triggered forced liquidations, exacerbating the decline.Analyst Scott Melker pointed out that STRC's current yield has actually increased due to the discount. Since dividends are calculated based on a $100 liquidation preference, if the STRC price is $90, the 11.5% annualized dividend corresponds to an actual yield of about 12.8%; if the price drops to $85, the yield could exceed 13%. Strategy is expected to announce the next STRC dividend adjustment on June 30. The market is currently focused on whether STRC's discount will persist and whether Strategy's model of relying on capital markets for financing to continue increasing BTC holdings can remain stable.