Research firm Steno Research predicts that the newly launched ETFs could see $15 billion to $20 billion worth of inflows in the first year which is roughly the same that the spot bitcoin ETFs have taken in in just seven months. Ethereum doesn't have the "first-mover advantage" that bitcoin had and it lacks a strong narrative such as bitcoin's "digital gold" belief among many supporters, a report by the firm stated.

Ether (ETH) ETFs Approved by SEC, Bringing Popular Funds to Second-Largest Cryptocurrency

An analyst known for being crowned as a “Master Trader” on the crypto exchange Bybit believes that a huge upside move is in sight for one Solana (SOL) rival.

Pseudonymous analyst Bluntz tells his 321,600 followers on the social media platform X that the native asset of the layer-1 protocol Sui (SUI) is in the midst of a new five-wave rally after completing an ABC correction.

The trader utilizes the Elliott Wave theory in his technical analysis. The theory states that a bullish asset tends to witness a five-wave surge after completing an ABC pullback.

Says Bluntz,

“A lot of alts starting to look crazy good here, SUI definitely one of them.”

Based on the trader’s chart, he seems to predict that SUI will hit $5.50, a 98% increase from its current value of $2.77.

Another altcoin on the trader’s radar is the Solana-based decentralized oracle Pyth Network (PYTH). According to Bluntz, PYTH is flashing a bullish divergence on the weekly chart, indicating that a massive bullish reversal is in play.

“Liking PYTH here, Solana ecosystem is so utterly rekt it could easily 2x in the blink of an eye.

High timeframe bull divergence everywhere as far as the eye can see.”

At time of writing, PYTH is worth $0.105.

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Analyst Sees 98% Surge for Top Solana Challenger, Predicts at Least 2x Rally for One SOL-Based Altcoin

Payment giants Visa and Mastercard are reportedly gearing up to fend off a quarter-trillion-dollar threat against their business models.

Bloomberg reports that executives at the two companies – which are a combined $1.1 trillion in market capitalization – are preparing for the continued rise of stablecoins, which drastically lower the cost of everyday transactions for both giants’ customers.

Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer at Visa, says that in prior disruptions, such as mobile wallets and buy-now-pay-later apps, corporate adaptation ultimately prevailed.

“We’ve been tokenizing access to value for a very long time now… Now the value that underlies that token, by and large, is either bank accounts or credit lines, debit and credit cards, but there’s absolutely no reason that can’t be a stablecoin or another cryptocurrency…

When you’re crypto natives, you can send money back and forth, but if you want to use that in a broad scale manner for your everyday purposes, you need that hyperscale connectivity, and we provide the best onramp to that.”

And Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, says that the rise of stablecoins more so represents new “opportunities” rather than a threat of replacement.

“We shouldn’t assume that overnight, stablecoins will replace existing card payments or fiat… We think this is much more about new use cases and new opportunities than about replacing the existing system, especially in remittances, disbursements and business-to-business payments.”

According to data from CoinGecko, the current market cap of all stablecoins in circulation is over $255 billion.

According to last month’s report from The Wall Street Journal, anonymous people familiar with the matter said that some of the world’s largest retailers are considering issuing their very own dollar-pegged crypto assets in the US in an effort to save billions of dollars in transaction fees.

Walmart, Amazon, Expedia and unnamed airline companies were among those listed in the WSJ report.

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Here’s the $255,000,000,000 Threat That Visa and Mastercard Are Facing Right Now, According to Insiders: Report

A central New York man is currently in custody for turning $1.7 million worth of fraudulent checks into Bitcoin (BTC).

According to official District of Rhode Island court documents, Tushal Rathod has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Court documents show an affidavit by FBI special agent Samuel Morgan detailing Rathod’s allegations.

From 2022 to 2024, Morgan alleges Rathod collected nearly $2 million in fraudulent checks and business email compromise (BEC) fraud.

According to the affidavit,

“During a BEC, scammers obtain the login credentials of an email user of a business email account. Typically, the credentials are obtained during a ‘spearphishing’ cyber campaign.”

In a BEC, thieves use the stolen credentials to monitor e-mail transactions, stepping in with fraudulent communications over sensitive matters like upcoming financial transactions. BECs sometimes even involve malware.

Rathod allegedly then spread the fraudulent funds out across seven accounts in six different banks. Furthermore, most of those funds were then converted into BTC.

Rathod allegedly worked with several co-conspirators and took on different names to different people.

Says Morgan,

“In my training and experience, I know that fraudsters and individuals who conduct BEC schemes often work with a vast network of money launderers to help them ‘clean’ funds and then re-integrate the ‘cleaned’ funds into the economy so that the funds can be used free from the taint of criminal activity. This allows the scammers to profit from their fraudulent conduct and to avoid getting caught.”

Rathod was arrested and arraigned last Wednesday. He is currently awaiting his detention hearing in custody.

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Man Allegedly Converts $1,700,000 Worth of Fake Checks and Fraudulent Wire Transfers Into Bitcoin After Multiple Scams

The CEO of Ark Invest says that the US economy is in a recession – but there’s a catch.

In a new interview with CNBC, Ark CEO Cathie Wood shares her outlook on the US economy.

“Well, I think we have been climbing a wall of worry. I mean, a lot of people expected tariffs and wars and the controversy between the Fed and the President to really shake markets up. And of course, there has been some volatility. But these are the kinds of bull markets that I think are the most durable, when the market climbs through all of that controversy. It’s really signaling something. And I think the things that it’s signaling are: interest rates probably are coming down.

And I think what many people are not focused on in the inflation statistics are the housing numbers. And they get in there with a long lag. We think that the shift, or the concentration toward just a very few stocks– which was a very unhealthy bull market – that is changing, and the market is broadening out. And I think deregulation is probably one of the most important things that this administration is doing to unleash animal spirits.”

When asked what she thinks about opposing views – that the economy is doing fine – Wood points to housing and manufacturing numbers before making her prediction that this will all transition smoothly into a recovery.

“Well, I think we’ve been pretty consistent on this idea that we’ve been through a rolling recession. If you look at housing, which is actually having a little bit of a relapse today, housing plummeted in 2022 when interest rates shot up, and it has not recovered. Manufacturing has not recovered.

And so we do believe that they will recover as interest rates come down, deregulation takes hold, and some certainty about tax cuts and so forth occurs – including immediate expensing, perhaps, of capital goods, which would be very positive. So we think we’ll move from a rolling recession into a recovery.”

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Cathie Wood Says Stock Market Entering ‘Durable’ Bull Run, Predicts Mass Recovery of US Economy After Rate Cuts

Crypto asset manager Bitwise believes Bitcoin (BTC) remains on track to hit its price target in 2025.

In a new report, Bitwise executives Matt Hougan and Ryan Rasmussen double down on their prediction that Bitcoin will hit $200,000 within six months, a more than 88% increase from its current value.

“It’s been a mixed year for crypto asset prices…

We’re optimistic, however, that things are setting up for a very strong H2 (second half of the year). Progress in D.C. around crypto legislation, rising demand from institutional investors for crypto exposure and extreme bullishness around stablecoins are combining to create a strong environment for gains.

The bottom line: we’re holding firm to our BTC $200,000 prediction, as there is simply too much institutional demand for BTC to keep prices flat for long.”

The investors also say that there are bullish catalysts that may spark explosive rallies for Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) in the second half of 2025. However, they are unsure if ETH and SOL can hit fresh all-time highs.

“We’re less confident on ETH and SOL, but hope that rising interest in stablecoins, ETF (exchange-traded fund) approvals and the emergence of ETH and SOL treasury companies can drive prices substantially higher.”

Bitcoin is trading for $105,996 at time of writing, down 1.5% in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, ETH is trading for $2,423 at time of writing, down 2% on the day, and SOL is trading $147 at time of writing, down 6.8% in the last 24 hours.

The analysts also believe that top US crypto exchange Coinbase will eventually trade for $700 per share and surpass Charles Schwab’s total value, but that it’s unlikely to occur this year.

“COIN’s stock has done well, doubling Schwab’s market return (44% against 22% for the old-school brokerage)…

Schwab’s stock has done a bit better than we expected. As a result, the gap between Coinbase’s value ($90 billion) and Schwab’s value ($164 billion) is probably too wide to cross by year-end.”

COIN is trading for $337 at time of writing.

Lastly, the executives are also staying committed to their prediction that the market cap of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) will surpass $50 billion this year.

“Tokenized RWAs were a $13 billion market at the start of 2025. Today, they’re at roughly $25 billion. We think adoption here will accelerate in H2.”

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Bitwise Doubles Down on $200,000 Bitcoin Price Target, Reveals Predictions for Ethereum Solana, Coinbase and More

Bitcoin slid on Tuesday as weakness in U.S. tech stocks appeared to spill over into crypto markets.

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The crypto asset fell about 1% over the past 24 hours, trading at $106,175 at press time as traders took profits after ending June above the $107,000 for its highest-ever monthly close.

Sentiment equally soured in equities with shares of Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA) both taking heavy losses, dragging the Nasdaq lower by about 0.6% — a pattern that often weighs on digital assets. Tesla was lower by 5.4% in afternoon trade after the Donald Trump/Elon Musk spat re-erupted alongside the momentum for passage of the GOP's spending bill.

Major altcoins including Solana

Powell repeats vow to stay patient

, Cardanoand Avalancheposted steep declines, adding to a broader downturn across the crypto space. SOL led the way with a 6% decline following yesterday's spike higher on news of imminent launch of an ETF.

Speaking in Europe at an ECB event, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell repeated recent comments about the U.S. economy being in a good spot, thus allowing for patience as the central bank mulls the idea of rate cuts.

Powell's comments Tuesday were of particular import given what's now a clear split between him and at least two other Fed members, both of whom would like to see a July rate cut on the table. Powell did allow that a rate cut this month isn't off the table, but gave little indication he's considering easing policy in July.

Thanks to the July 4 holiday, the government's employment report for June will be released on Thursday this week. Economists are expecting jobs to have grown by 110,000 in June versus 139,000 the previous month.

A sizable delta below that 110,000 level could quickly change sentiment about the Fed's July decision.

Bitcoin Price (BTC) Dips Back Below $107K

An elderly JPMorgan Chase customer is out thousands of dollars after scammers convinced him he won a big prize.

An 87-year-old man from Portland, Oregon, lost a total of $13,000 to scammers who told him he needed to pay them money to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars and a new SUV, reports the NBC-affiliated KGW8.

The victim, whose name was not provided, says he received a call one morning from a man claiming he won a Publishers Clearing House prize.

“[He said] that I won second prize. Second prize is $850,000 and $150,000 in cash. And additionally, I was going to [get] a Mercedes SUV.”

However, the victim says he was told he had to meet someone at his bank and hand over money to receive it. He says he followed the instructions and was met by a thief who walked with him into a Chase Bank branch in Northwest Portland.

“I said, how much money do you need? He said $10,000. I said, what’s that for? He said, well, we need people to insure the car, give it license plates, install the plates. It sounded reasonable at the time.”

The scam didn’t stop there. He says the thief got him to come back later that day and withdraw another $1,500, as well as go to CVS to buy three $500 gift cards.

However, he says that when his wife, Iris, came home and he told her about the situation, she realized he had been scammed. She says the bank teller should have figured out her husband may have been a victim of fraud before letting him withdraw the funds.

Says Iris,

“When I got home he said, ‘I have good news for you. We won Publishers Clearing House. We’re going to get a big check.’ After that, I had a meltdown. None of this would have happened if the teller had called a manager. None of this would have happened, and it’s not like he looks like a young man. There was a man, like, shadowing him.”

A Chase Bank spokesperson says the firm is looking into the matter. The Portland Police are also investigating.

Says the victim,

“I used to be a very bright guy, and I feel very stupid now having bought this.”

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‘It Sounded Reasonable at the Time’ – Elderly JPMorgan Chase Customer Duped out of $13,000 by Contest Scam: Report

Key Takeaways:

Four North Korean operatives posed as remote IT workers to access and steal over $900,000 in cryptocurrency.

They infiltrated blockchain companies in the U.S. and Serbia using stolen identities and falsified documents.

The funds were laundered via mixers and fake accounts, with investigators linking the operation to DPRK’s efforts to finance its weapons programs.

Four North Korean citizens have been accused by federal prosecutors of taking part in a currency theft that stole almost $1 million in cryptocurrency from two cryptocurrency companies in a complex, rolling series of online attacks. Prosecutors say the defendants seized on the growth of remote work and cryptocurrency development to duck sanctions and funnel digital assets to the North Korean government.

Remote Work as a Backdoor into Blockchain Firms

The indictment, filed in the Northern District of Georgia on June 30, 2025, details a scam that ran from at least 2019 to somewhere in 2022, with multiple crypto heists in that span of time. The defendants—Kim Kwang Jin, Kang Tae Bok, Jong Pong Ju, and Chang Nam Il—used fake and stolen identities to secure jobs as developers at blockchain firms located in the U.S. and Serbia.

Court records reveal that Kim and Jong were hired as developers by a Georgia-based blockchain R&D company and a Serbia-based virtual token firm, respectively. They applied under fabricated profiles that included fraudulent documentation, mixing real and stolen identity details. Neither company was aware of the applicants’ true North Korean nationality at the time of hiring.

The operation reportedly began with the group working together in the United Arab Emirates in 2019, where they first coordinated their skills and planned how to target crypto platforms abroad.

Coordinated Theft and Laundering of Digital Assets

Smart Contract Exploitation and Insider Access

Once inside those jobs, the agents had access to sensitive inside systems and the company’s crypto wallets. Jong Pong Ju, a k a “Bryan Cho,” had taken approximately $175,000 in digital currency out of his employer’s bank account in February 2022. A month later, Kim Kwang Jin preyed on the flaws in the company’s smart contract code, making off with nearly $740,000 of crypto assets.

Prosecutors said both thefts were premeditated and used code modifications and inward permissions to obscure the unauthorized transactions. The stolen money was laundered through a digital currency mixing service to hide its origins, after which it was transferred to exchange accounts opened with forged Malaysian identity documents.

These exchange accounts were managed by Kang Tae Bok and Chang Nam Il, other co-conspirators who also laundered the proceeds from the stolen money. All four were named in a five-count indictment, including wire fraud and money laundering charges.

U.S. Authorities Warn of North Korea’s Expanding Cyber Tactics

U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg emphasized that the case reflects a growing and calculated threat from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which uses IT operatives globally to circumvent sanctions and raise funds for state-run programs—including nuclear weapons development.

“These individuals masked their true identities, exploited employer trust, and stole nearly a million dollars—all to support an authoritarian regime,” said Hertzberg. “We will continue to pursue any actor, domestic or foreign, who targets U.S. businesses.”

The FBI Atlanta division, which spearheaded the investigation, echoed these concerns. Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown said the DPRK’s use of fraudulent identities to breach blockchain companies highlights the distinct intersection between cyber security, national security, and financial crime.

A Pattern of Crypto-Fueled Sanctions Evasion

This case is not isolated. It is part of a broader pattern of North Korea’s operatives using crypto infrastructure to exploit international controls. On the domestic DOJ enabler-crossfire front, the DOJ is engaged in the public relations effort known as DPRK RevGen: Domestic Enabler Initiative, an offensive launched in March 2024 by the National Security Division of the DOJ, the initiative to terminate these online virtual currency-based money-laundering pathways on the foreign and the U.S. side.

Authorities said the scam was part of a wider drive to form “revenue generation networks” that ultimately contribute to North Korea’s strategic budget. These include high-profile cyberattacks, ransomware deployments, and now—direct infiltration into corporate teams through remote employment.

Andrew Fierman, head of national security at blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, commented that DPRK actors are increasingly embedding themselves within target firms:

“They gather internal knowledge, manipulate systems from within, and even orchestrate insider breaches.”

This insider model makes detection harder, especially when paired with advanced laundering techniques such as token mixing and the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to layer transactions.

Read More: Manta Network Founder Avoids Lazarus Group Zoom Hack Using Deepfake and Malware Tactic

Crypto Industry Faces Renewed Scrutiny

The incident asks some tough questions of the crypto industry, in particular about identity verification, hiring remote, and access control. Although blockchain-based companies put a premium on decentralization and hiring talented staff across the globe, the downside is the heightened exposure to sophisticated fraud.

The stolen funds—worth approximately $915,000 at the time—are still being tracked across exchanges, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The DOJ and FBI are collaborating with international law enforcement and private blockchain analytics firms to recover the assets.

Read More: ZachXBT Identifies Lazarus Group as Bybit $1.4B Hackers, Wins Arkham Bounty

Inside the $900K Crypto Heist: How North Korean Agents Infiltrated Blockchain Firms Undetected

Key Takeaways:

MicroStrategy now holds 597,325 BTC valued at over $64.35 billion , purchased at an average price of $70,982 .

The firm recently acquired 4,980 BTC for $531 million , funded primarily through equity sales.

With over $21.95 billion in unrealized profit , MicroStrategy continues to double down on its aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy.

MicroStrategy has once again demonstrated unwavering confidence in Bitcoin, making a substantial $531 million acquisition as BTC prices hover above $107,000. It is an additional step that makes the company the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

Read More: $40B Bitcoin Bet: Why Michael Saylor’s Wild Plan May Push BTC to $1M Sooner Than You Think

MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Treasury Hits 597,325 BTC

Michael Saylor made headlines when his business intelligence company, MicroStrategy, unveiled its treasury Bitcoin strategy. With this latest purchase, the company now owns 597,325 BTC – meaning that it holds an estimated value of $64.35 billion worth of Bitcoin at current market prices.

The mean buy price for all purchases is $70,982 per coin – a total of $21.95 billion in unrealized profits. Such sum is nothing short of jaw-dropping, and it puts MicroStrategy way ahead of any other public company with Bitcoin holdings.

Latest Acquisition: $531 Million for 4,980 BTC

MicroStrategy bought 4,980 BTC between mid – and end of June, the U.S. publicly traded firm revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The $531.1 million purchase was made at an average price of $106,801 per BTC — signaling the company’s readiness to buy at a historically high levels for the digital asset.

This aggressive turning came as Bitcoin sentiment in the market was on the rise, with BTC seeing a recovery from ~$101,000 to well above $108,000 during the same period.

How MicroStrategy Funded the Massive Purchase

There were equity offerings totaling $531 million to finance the purchase on the part of MicroStrategy, largely in the form of the sale of common stocks amounting to about $519 million, as well as preferred shares amounting to approximately $59 million.

The funding approach is consistent with the five previous acquisitions the company has made, as they generally involved the company issuing new stock, not cashing in existing assets. It offers a continued expression of investor confidence in the long-term viability of Bitcoin as a digital store of value.

Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) ticked up about 1.3% in premarket trading after the news. Analysts believe this indicates the market’s growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a credible reserve asset.

Year-to-Date Accumulation Nearing 86,000 BTC

Following the purchase of 4,980 BTC, MicroStrategy’s year-to-date acquisition of BTC has increased to 85,871 BTC — or almost $9.5 billion at current prices. For comparison, the company bought 140,538 BTC in all of 2024.

That means MicroStrategy may well still be buying aggressively in 2025 and could top its annual record – provided the market conditions were right and cash were available.

Custody Moves and On-Chain Activity Raise Eyebrows

Strangely enough, blockchain monitors found that MicroStrategy was reportedly shifted a total of 7,383 BTC, or $796 million at the time, spread across three new wallets after the buy. Although the company hasn’t made an official statement regarding why it took this step, I guess it’s part of some kind of strategic custody rearrangement for security.

Looking at the onchain data from Lookonchain, exception few buys, MicroStrategy is definitely HODL and don’t do nothing to it. The firm’s only known sale was in December 2022, when the firm sold 704 BTC temporarily to settle tax obligations, but bought back slightly more just a couple days after.

This steady behavior would underscore Saylor’s narrative that bitcoin is a multi-generational asset, not a speculative trade.

Michael Saylor’s Vision: Playing the Long Game

Michael Saylor has often emphasized that MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy is not short-term. In a re-shared interview from 2020, Saylor described the company’s BTC accumulation as an investment in the future, stating:

“I’m buying it for the dude that’s going to work for the dude that’s going to get hired by the guy who takes over my job in 100 years. I’m not selling it.”

This philosophy has now manifested in one of the largest and most successful Bitcoin treasury strategies in history. The company’s unrealized profits speak volumes — but for Saylor, the strategy is about legacy more than balance sheets.

Read More: Michael Saylor Net Worth – Can Bitcoin Billionaire Become the World’s Richest Man?

What This Means for the Broader Crypto Market

MicroStrategy’s continued accumulation at increasingly higher prices has broad implications:

MicroStrategy Adds $531M in Bitcoin, Pushing Holdings to 597K BTC Worth Over $64 Billion

Key Takeaways:

Binance introduces Sahara AI (SAHARA) as its 25th project in the HODLer Airdrops program.

Users who staked BNB between June 18–21, 2025, will receive part of a 125M SAHARA airdrop.

SAHARA will list on Binance Spot on June 26 with trading pairs including USDT, USDC, FDUSD, BNB, and TRY.

Binance continues to fuel its dominance in the crypto market with the announcement of a high-profile airdrop and token listing: Sahara AI (SAHARA). The AI-native blockchain project becomes the 25th initiative featured on Binance’s HODLer Airdrops portal, with its token scheduled to go live on June 26, 2025.

Read More: Sahara AI Price Prediction 2025: Will This $50M Funded Project Disrupt AI Industry?

Binance HODLer Airdrops: Rewarding Passive Participation

Airdrop Mechanism and Eligibility

The HODLer Airdrops program rewards BNB holders who subscribe to Binance’s Simple Earn (Flexible or Locked) and/or On-Chain Yields products. Unlike traditional launchpads, HODLer Airdrops utilize historical balance snapshots rather than requiring direct participation or manual claims.

For SAHARA, eligible users are those who staked BNB between 00:00 UTC on June 18 and 23:59 UTC on June 21. Binance will airdrop 125,000,000 SAHARA tokens (1.25% of the total supply) to these participants, automatically distributing rewards to users’ Spot Accounts at least one hour before trading goes live.

Binance has also committed to allocating an additional 150,000,000 SAHARA tokens to future airdrops under the same program, reinforcing its goal of ongoing community incentives.

Participation Made Simple

Participation does not require any manual actions. Users merely need to stake BNB in Simple Earn or On-Chain Yields products. Binance calculates hourly average balances via multiple random snapshots during the campaign period. Eligible users will receive rewards retroactively without needing to claim manually.

Token Launch Details

Listing Schedule and Trading Pairs

SAHARA will officially list on Binance Spot on June 26, 2025, at 12:00 UTC. Initial trading pairs will include:

SAHARA/USDT

SAHARA/USDC

SAHARA/FDUSD

SAHARA/BNB

SAHARA/TRY

Deposits for SAHARA will open one hour after the airdrop announcement. The token will carry the Seed Tag, denoting that it is a newer, potentially more volatile project. Binance advises users to conduct proper due diligence (DYOR) before trading.

Network Details

SAHARA will be launched on both BNB Chain and Ethereum using the same smart contract address: 0xFDFfB411C4A70AA7C95D5C981a6Fb4Da867e1111. Listing fees for the token are waived, consistent with Binance’s support for early-stage Web3 innovation.

SAHARA Tokenomics

The maximum supply of SAHARA is capped at 10,000,000,000 tokens. At launch, the circulating supply will be 2.04 billion with half the total supply to come. The HODLer Airdrop share is: 1.25% of the total supply, this is a HODL airdrop of significant size compared to other token distributions.

Binance has also committed to additional allocation for future drops and an additional 1.5% of the total supply (150m tokens) will be reserved for future drops.

Beyond the Airdrop: SAHARA Ecosystem Expansion

Trading Features and Integrations

Binance has made SAHARA accessible across its platform suite:

Simple Earn : SAHARA Flexible Products available at launch.

Buy Crypto : SAHARA can be purchased using Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Revolut.

Convert : Users can convert SAHARA to BTC, USDT, and other supported tokens at zero fees.

Margin Trading : SAHARA will be enabled on Cross and Isolated Margin with USDT and USDC pairs.

Futures : USD Ⓢ -M SAHARA Perpetual Contracts with up to 75x leverage will launch alongside Spot trading.

This listing as a full-stack strategy is to enhance SAHARA’s visibility and usability in various user groups from hodlers to active traders.

Alpha Transition

SAHARA will also be featured on Binance Alpha before the listing goes live. But when the spot market opens, the token will be removed from the Alpha interface and all balances will be moved into Spot Account. This aligns with plans from Binance to let promising projects mature in Alpha before launching them to a wider audience.

Inside Sahara AI: The Project Fueling the Buzz

The SAHARA is a community-based AI platform with decentralization, all AI models can be created, application and all of the contribution and monetization became easy. It enables Users and Businesses to empower themselves with the information and knowledge that’s meaningful to them through Personalised “Knowledge Agents” (KA).

Unlike centralized AI offerings dominated by tech giants, Sahara AI emphasizes independence, safety and privacy. Contributions to the platform — whether it data annotations, reviews, or model creation – are provable and incentivized using a number of on-chain features of the platform, including royalties and Sahara Points.

Backed by Leading Investors

SAHARA has already drawn high-caliber support. The project launched IDO (there was private rounds as well) and raised $51.5M with backers (investors and advisors) like Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, Binance Labs (now with Yzi Labs), SamsungNEXT and dao5.

They will be led by professor Sean (Xiang) Ren, an AI researcher from University of Southern California who has been named one of the top AI innovators by Samsung and MIT.

Airdrop Landscape and Market Sentiment

SAHARA is just one of the latest buzz-worthy AI crypto projects. As more and more investors begin to show interest in blockchain projects that utilize the power of AI, Sahara joins a list of available tokens including Fetch. ai (FET) and Bittensor (TAO) getting some traction.

However, rather than being focused on protocol infrastructure or training incentives, SAHARA is structured around individual data ownership and monetization, and may find a foothold in the data sovereignty sector.

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Hackers stole more than $2.47 billion worth of cryptocurrency in the first half of 2025, already exceeding last year's total of $2.42 billion, according to Certik's Hack3d Report.

The majority of that figure can be attributed to two incidents; the Bybit breach and the Cetus Protocol exploit that combined were worth $1.78 billion.

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Wallet compromise was the key attack vectors for hackers in the first half of this year, contributing to $1.7 billion worth of losses, while phishing was still rampant resulting in $410 million stolen across 132 incidents.

Phishing is a technique hackers use to steal a victim's password or credentials in order to access an account.

“While the overall figures are alarming, it is important to point out that the majority of the funds lost in H1 were attributable to two concentrated, high-impact events,” said CertiK co-founder Ronghui Gu.

“But regardless, the results serve as another reminder to the industry that there is still much work to be done,” Gu added.

The report also found that $801 million was lost in Q2 alone, a 52% decrease from the previous quarter. The majority of hacks took place on Ethereum, with $1.5 billion stolen across 164 incidents, followed by Bitcoin with $373 million stolen across 10 incidents.

Crypto Investors Lost $2.5B to Hack and Scams in the First Half of 2025: Certik

US banking titan Goldman Sachs reportedly says that there’s one catalyst that can spark an American manufacturing resurgence.

Goldman says in a note to investors that artificial intelligence (AI) advancements have massive potential to boost US manufacturing, reports Fortune.

Says Goldman analysts, including Joseph Briggs,

“A pickup in the pace of innovation – potentially from recent advances in robotics and generative AI – therefore remains the catalyst most likely to reverse the long-run stagnation in manufacturing productivity.”

Goldman analysts say AI is a much better bet for a US manufacturing boost than the tariffs that US President Donald Trump is pushing, claiming that the taxes on imported goods will return manufacturing to the USA and increase jobs.

“Tariffs are unlikely to result in much reshoring because production costs in other countries are well below the US for most products (even after accounting for tariffs), and China will likely continue to grow its exports on the back of cost advantages and industrial policy support.”

Briggs also emphasizes the need for the US to ramp up its efforts in advancing factory automation.

“This is one of the key technologies that I think could drive productivity growth in a cost-competitive manner. And we just haven’t seen that occur on a meaningful scale yet.”

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