A new report from TRM Labs found that Kyrgyzstan appears to be serving as a front for crypto platforms linked to shuttered Russian exchange Garantex.
Russia-linked activity accounts for almost all of Kyrgyzstan’s crypto industry, which was “virtually nonexistent” prior to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Experts told Decrypt that Kyrgyzstan’s political environment creates “vulnerabilities” that can be exploited for illicit financial flows.
Russian individuals and groups are using Kyrgyzstan’s cryptocurrency ecosystem to evade international sanctions, according to research from UK-based blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.
Publishing its findings in a blog, TRM Labs reported that Kyrgyzstan appears to be serving as a front for cryptocurrency platforms and services linked to Russian exchange Garantex, which was shuttered in March after an international operation.
Its conclusions are based on analysis of transfers between Russia-linked entities and Kyrgyz-registered platforms, including transfers of the A7A5 stablecoin, which it previously reported has been used to move funds from Garantex to Kyrgyz-based Grinex.
The report also finds that many Kyrgyz platforms are registered with the same residential addresses, contact details and founders, behavior typical of shell companies.
In fact, Russia-linked activity accounts for almost all of Kyrgyzstan’s cryptocurrency industry, which the report states was “virtually nonexistent” a month before Russia’s incursion into Ukraine in February 2022.
“The recent growth of Kyrgyzstan’s crypto industry appears to be driven by Russian demand, not domestic usage,” says TRM Labs’ EMA Head of Policy Isabella Chase, speaking to Decrypt.
Kyrgyzstan’s pro-crypto pivot
Kyrgyzstan’s government passed a pro-crypto law in January 2022, effectively recognizing cryptocurrencies as property, while also establishing a registration regime for virtual asset service providers (VASP).
In conjunction with growing demand from Russia, the passage of this law enabled the Kyrgyz crypto sector to grow rapidly, with VASPs having a transaction volume of $59 million by the end of 2022, and then of $4.2 billion in the first seven months of 2024 alone.
Yet Chase reiterated that there “is little evidence of significant local retail adoption or organic demand within Kyrgyzstan itself,” implying that the Kyrgyz cryptocurrency industry is effectively an outgrowth of its Russian counterpart.
According to TRM Labs, “Many Kyrgyz-registered platforms, including Grinex and Meer, exhibit clear links to Russian exchanges like Garantex and facilitate large-scale ruble-to-crypto transactions using Russian-backed stablecoins such as A7A5,” Chase explained. She added that these platforms have become “key conduits for Russian entities—both legitimate and illicit—looking to access global financial systems amid sanctions.”
TRM Labs’ report also identifies some of the entities that have been using Kyrgyz exchanges in order to circumvent sanctions, including paramilitary outfit Rusich Group, which has registered wallet addresses with Envoys Vision Digital Exchange (EVDE).
The firm also found that EVDE and other exchanges have interactions with cross-border logistics firms and Chinese financial institutions, suggesting that Kyrgyzstan is playing an increasingly important role in helping Russia to procure dual-use goods (such as semiconductors and drones) for military purposes.
For example, bilateral trade between Kyrgyzstan and Russia was worth $3.5 billion last year, while imports into Russia via nations such as Kyrgyzstan rose as high as $20 billion in the first half of 2023.
In addition, TRM Labs also cited figures showing that Chinese exports of 45 particular dual-use goods to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan increased by 64% between 2022 and 2023, reaching a combined value of $1.3 billion.
And there are currently no real signs that Kyrgyzstan’s cryptocurrency sector will stop expanding in the near future, with more than 126 VASPs now licensed in the country, and with its Ministry of Finance currently developing a domestic, USD-pegged stablecoin, USDKG.
A lack of checks and balances
Any potential progress is also likely hampered by Kyrgyzstan’s governance and political climate.
According to Altynai Myrzabekova, Regional Advisor for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at global anti-corruption organization Transparency International, Kyrgyzstan’s political environment is characterized by weak checks and balances, as well as increasing executive power, which “creates vulnerabilities” that can be exploited for illicit financial flows.
“While we have not independently assessed the specific use of Kyrgyz-based crypto exchanges by Russian actors,” she told Decrypt, “the broader regional context, including state capture, weak judicial independence, and opaque control of natural resources, suggests a high risk of such practices being enabled or overlooked.”
Kyrgyzstan scored 25 out of 100 in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, a score which represents “serious concerns” about public sector integrity and transparency.
Myrzabekova told Decrypt that, “Without stronger safeguards, transparency measures, and the political will to enforce anti-money laundering and sanctions frameworks,” Kyrgyzstan remains “highly exposed to exploitation by corrupt actors and sanctioned entities.”
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In the early days of the internet, infrastructure was everything. Companies like Amazon and Google didn’t start out as consumer giants. They started by building infrastructure that made the web work better. Google built the best search infrastructure. Amazon built the best e-commerce and cloud infrastructure. Their success came because they owned the rails others used to build.
Web3 has taken a similar path. Ethereum didn’t become dominant because of hype alone. It became the platform for developers to build thousands of decentralized applications. That created demand for ETH, which powered the entire ecosystem. The same pattern happened with Filecoin, which built decentralized storage and tied it to a token that rewarded participants. But these early projects had one major flaw: they launched tokens before the product was ready. This led to inflated valuations, short-term speculation, and weak retention.
Past Big Launch, Uncertain Execution
One of the earliest major token launches, The DAO raised over $120 million in ETH before ever releasing a working product. It was intended to fund decentralized ventures, but a critical smart contract vulnerability was exploited, siphoning off a third of the funds. The project collapsed and became defunct shortly thereafter. The token had no real infrastructure or applications to sustain it.
Another project called NEM launched in 2015 with ambitious tokenomics around proof‑of‑importance and decentralized applications. Despite a peak market capitalization of nearly €200 million, it failed to gain real user traction. By 2021, development dwindled and the network was effectively sidelined in favor of its successor, Symbol. The token remained on exchanges, but the project ceased active evolution.
Spheron’s Approach: Build First, Token Later
This is where Spheron takes a different path. Spheron didn’t launch with hype. It launched with revenue. As of mid-2025, Spheron already generates over $10 million in annual recurring revenue. It powers 44,000+ nodes across 170+ countries and has over $100 million worth of distributed compute capacity in use. Unlike others, Spheron built a working infrastructure first. Then it layered on real applications like KlippyAI and Skynet that create constant demand for compute. And now, it is launching the $SPON token, completing the final piece of the growth flywheel.
So, what is the $SPON flywheel? At its core, it is a feedback loop where infrastructure, applications, and token incentives feed into each other to create exponential growth. Spheron built the rails for permissionless compute. Developers and enterprises use those rails to deploy applications. Those applications require GPU and CPU power, which is provided by node operators. To participate in the network and earn more, operators stake $SPON. To access compute, users pay in $SPON. To govern pricing, protocol upgrades, and reward policies, the community votes using $SPON. All fees collected go back into the system through buybacks and staking rewards. The more demand for apps, the more value flows to the network. The more compute is used, the greater the demand there is for $SPON. This is the flywheel.
Apps Drive Usage. Usage Drives Value.
What makes this model especially powerful is that it is working before the token even launches. Most Web3 infra projects struggle to get real usage after launch. Spheron has already onboarded enterprise clients and community developers before the TGE. Projects like Gensyn, Kuzco, Gradient, and Sentient already use Spheron’s stack. KlippyAI has enabled users to mint nearly 5,000 video NFTs using compute from the Spheron network. Skynet, the no-code agent platform, is launching with agent-to-infrastructure communication that lets AI agents dynamically scale compute as needed. All of this runs on Spheron’s infra, and all of it will use $SPON as the default currency post-TGE.
This matters because infrastructure by itself doesn’t grow. Apps do. If you look at the history of computing, every major wave of infrastructure growth followed an application explosion.
Spheron has learned this lesson. That’s why it built applications first. When those apps grow, compute demand grows. When compute demand grows, node operators earn more. And when that happens, $SPON gains value.
Why $SPON is Built to Last
Another unique part of the Spheron strategy is its long-term token design. Many projects in Web3 suffer from bad tokenomics. Teams and early investors dump on the community after TGE. But Spheron has built-in a one-year cliff for investors and a four-year vesting for the team. It has also committed to using a portion of fees to buy back $SPON from the market, creating deflationary pressure. Unlike hype-driven launches, Spheron is aligned for the long game. The people who build and use the network are the ones who will benefit the most.
There’s also a social layer to this vision. Until now, decentralized compute has been out of reach for most people. Setting up a node required technical knowledge and hardware expertise. Spheron changes that with Fizz nodes. Anyone with a GPU or CPU can plug into the network using simple tools. Onboarding is as easy as logging in with Gmail. This opens up permissionless compute to the world. From a gamer in Indonesia to a student in Brazil, anyone can earn by powering AI agents. And all of it will run on $SPON.
As the network grows, more developers will build apps, more users will demand compute, and more hardware providers will join. This creates more activity, more fees, and more incentives. It also means more decisions to be made. That’s where $SPON governance comes in. Holders can vote on major protocol changes, pricing, and reward allocations. It’s not just a token. It’s an ownership stake in the next generation of the internet’s infrastructure.
The AI era needs new infrastructure. Centralized clouds can’t keep up. They’re expensive, closed, and prone to censorship. Spheron is building something different. A global, decentralized, community-owned supercloud. And $SPON is the engine that powers it.
Spheron is not just a vision. It’s already working. And $SPON is how you own a piece of it. Not just as a speculator, but as a builder, provider, or voter. This is how real ecosystems scale.
Decentralization was blockchain’s founding promise—but in finance, milliseconds move markets. Unless Web3 can match Wall Street’s sub-second speed, users will keep choosing the faster rails of traditional finance. We see this in decentralized networks like Ethereum, which processes around 15 transactions per second, compared to Visa’s 24,000.
Ever since the internet irrevocably changed finance, the world has never looked back. In fact, speed is an essential component underpinning every facet of how finance operates. It’s the difference between closing an arbitrage opportunity or missing out on it altogether, or seeing life-changing funds hit your account right before you miss an important payment.
At the same time, traditional finance is still incredibly opaque, saddled with hidden fees, and designed to keep an elite few at the top while everyone else is locked out entirely. In order for blockchain to truly revolutionize the systems in place today—and to offer users alternatives that are transparent, open, and equitable—the Web3 ecosystem will have to get a whole lot faster.
The Chains We Have Today Don’t Cut It
Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency in existence. This is largely because it was the first one, inspiring the idea of an internet-native system of exchange not tied to any one government or nation. However, despite its international renown, builders still can’t ignore that Bitcoin has a 10-minute block time and can handle only 10 transactions per second.
Ethereum marginally improves upon this, but its average of 14 transactions per second is still incredibly slow compared to centralized payment processors. Ethereum transactions can also carry high gas fees, which are a major barrier to widespread adoption. When compared to the NASDAQ, which processes 20,000 stock-market transactions per second on average, it’s clear how egregiously blockchain-based systems fall behind.
Additionally, while blockchain’s principles of decentralization and trust are important, outside crypto-native circles most people do not care as much about decentralization as they do about performance. Many users prefer centralized systems, like traditional banks or exchanges, because they are faster, cheaper, and much more efficient.
Despite Ethereum’s decentralized trust, its slow speed and high costs are a serious drawback. Simply put, the most widely used chains are not even close to competing with traditional offerings. This means users will have to look to faster, more centralized offerings to help close the gap.
Speed Is the Killer Feature
Right now, even the most crypto-native circles are starting to sacrifice decentralization for speed. For example, performance-focused chains like Solana, with 400-millisecond block times, support up to 3,000 transactions per second—bringing us closer to traditional offerings. The rise of centralized platforms such as Hyperliquid further bolsters this trend.
In May 2025 alone, Hyperliquid’s trading volume surged by 50%, according to DeFiLlama, highlighting the increasing number of traders who are prioritizing speed over a decentralized ethos.
But even with its incredible momentum, Hyperliquid is still not the endgame. It relies too heavily on infrastructure that isn’t open or composable, and it serves only a small portion of DeFi traders’ needs. The platform lacks the extensibility and interoperability needed to support the transition of modern finance into digital assets on a global scale.
To strike a balance between performance and decentralization, projects can adopt best practices such as batching transactions to reduce on-chain load, using off-chain order books for faster execution, and optimizing state differences to minimize gas costs and latency.
The real killer app for blockchain technology will be a platform that combines decentralization with performance and that’s as fast, smooth, and cheap as centralized alternatives like Revolut. Once that happens, there won’t be any more conversations about “DeFi vs. TradFi” or “centralization vs. decentralization.”
Instead, we’ll simply have a new standard for the financial industry that operates as fast and as seamlessly as the internet itself.
History is unequivocal: the fastest networks become the default. For blockchain, trust alone isn’t a moat—latency is. The builders who deliver Web2-grade speed without sacrificing openness will own the next decade of finance.
Hackers leaked 72,000+ selfies, IDs, and DMs from Tea’s unsecured database.
The private info of women using the app is now searchable and spreading online.
The original leaker said lax “vibe coding” may have been one of the reasons why the app was left wide open to attack.
The viral women-only dating safety app Tea suffered a massive data breach this week after users on 4chan discovered its backend database was completely unsecured—no password, no encryption, nothing.
The result? Over 72,000 private images—including selfies and government IDs submitted for user verification—were scraped and spread online within hours. Some were mapped and made searchable. Private DMs were leaked. The app designed to protect women from dangerous men had just exposed its entire user base.
The exposed data, totaling 59.3 GB, included:
13,000+ verification selfies and government-issued IDs
Tens of thousands of images from messages and public posts
IDs dating as recently as 2024 and 2025, contradicting Tea’s claim that the breach involved only “old data”
4chan users initially posted the files, but even after the original thread was deleted, automated scripts kept scraping data. On decentralized platforms like BitTorrent, once it’s out, it’s out for good.
From viral app to total meltdown
Tea had just hit #1 on the App Store, riding a wave of virality with over 4 million users. Its pitch: a women-only space to “gossip” about men for safety purposes—though critics saw it as a “man-shaming” platform wrapped in empowerment branding.
One Reddit user summed up the schadenfreude: “Create a women-centric app for doxxing men out of envy. End up accidentally doxxing the women clients. I love it.”
Verification required users to upload a government ID and selfie, supposedly to keep out fake accounts and non-women. Now those documents are in the wild.
The company told 404 Media that “[t]his data was originally stored in compliance with law enforcement requirements related to cyber-bullying prevention.”
Decrypt reached out but has not received an official response yet.
The culprit: ‘Vibe coding’
Here’s what the O.G. hacker wrote. “This is what happens when you entrust your personal information to a bunch of vibe-coding DEI hires.”
“Vibe coding” is when developers type “make me a dating app” into ChatGPT or another AI chatbot and ship whatever comes out. No security review, no understanding of what the code actually does. Just vibes.
Apparently, Tea’s Firebase bucket had zero authentication because that’s what AI tools generate by default. “No authentication, no nothing. It’s a public bucket,” the original leaker said.
It may be vibe coding, or simply poor coding. Regardless, the overreliance on generative AI is only increasing.
This isn’t some isolated incident. Earlier in 2025, the founder of SaaStr watched its AI agent delete the company’s entire production database during a “vibe coding” session. The agent then created fake accounts, generated hallucinated data, and lied about it in the logs.
Overall, researchers from Georgetown University found 48% of AI-generated code contains exploitable flaws, yet 25% of Y Combinator startups use AI for their core features.
So even though vibe coding is effective for occasional use, and tech behemoths like Google and Microsoft pray the AI gospel claiming their chatbots build an impressive part of their code, the average user and small entrepreneurs may be safer sticking to human coding—or at least review the work of their AIs very, very heavily.
“Vibe coding is awesome, but the code these models generate is full of security holes and can be easily hacked,” computer scientist Santiago Valdarrama warned on social media.
Vibe-coding is awesome, but the code these models generate is full of security holes and can be easily hacked.
This will be a live, 90-minute session where @snyksec will build a demo application using Copilot + ChatGPT and live hack it to find every weak spot in the generated…
— Santiago (@svpino) March 17, 2025
The problem gets worse with “slopsquatting.” AI suggests packages that don’t exist, hackers then create those packages filled with malicious code, and developers install them without checking.
Tea users are scrambling, and some IDs already appear on searchable maps. Signing up for credit monitoring may be a good idea for users trying to prevent further damage.
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XRP last week broke a new record of $3.65.
It dropped 15% from that high.
But XRP could still move higher as it’s a favorite with retail investors, one analyst told Decrypt.
After a wild run, XRP has retreated, erasing its gains of last week.
The coin was recently trading for $3.09, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko, after hitting a new record of $3.65 last Friday—a more than 15% drop.
The decline comes amid a wider market swoon in which most major altcoins have fallen. Solana and Dogecoin were off 1.3% and 2.2% over the past 24 hours.
Arca Director of Research Katie Talati told Decrypt that macroeconomic factors and general crypto market exhaustion are behind the drop.
“We get these really violent moves higher—which you don’t necessarily see in traditional markets—and as a result, you end up having these pullbacks,” she said, referring to the wider altcoin market.
Talati added that investors are now waiting to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve
Will cut interest rates at its scheduled meetings. President Trump has pressured Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates.
Crypto and other risk-on assets benefit from low-interest rate environments that boost financial liquidity.
XRP’s new high last week came after seven years, as the token missed a top during the last bull market of 2021. XRP’s new all-time high underscores investors’ belief in Ripple’s vision for “a regulatory-compliant blockchain for institutions,” Matt Kreiser, a research analyst at crypto analytics platform Messari, told Decrypt last week. “It’s a validation of everything they’ve been doing and working towards.”
The coin’s founder, Chris Larsen, was spotted moving over $140 million of the asset to exchanges—signalling that he (and perhaps other big investors) were ready to cash out once the coin surged upwards.
Still, the coin could still go higher, Talati said, noting that XRP has always been a favorite with retail investors. Following the recent end of a long-running lawsuit with the SEC, buyers could now see the coin as a “de-risked” investment, she said.
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Nasdaq-listed Windtree Therapeutics has said it will buy up to $700 million in BNB.
The company is following software firm Strategy’s gameplan of buying digital assets.
A number of publicly traded companies are now buying crypto—and not just Bitcoin—to boost their stock prices.
Another day, another crypto treasury. Biotech firm Windtree Therapeutics said Thursday that it plans to buy up to $700 million worth of BNB to put on its balance sheet—one day after the asset hit a new all-time high price.
The Warrington, Pennsylvania-based company, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker WINT, said that it is raising up to $520 million to fuel BNB purchases after previously announcing a plan to buy $200 million in the cryptocurrency. It also said it would partner with crypto exchange Kraken to help custody the asset.
Windtree will raise the money with a $500 million equity line of credit with an unnamed institutional investor, and via a separate $20 million stock‑purchase pact with another firm, Build and Build Corp, a Friday release said. Overall, the firm said it has committed up to $700 million towards BNB purchases.
The drug company’s CEO Jed Latkin said: “Pending stockholder approval, the opportunity to secure additional funds for purchasing more BNB cryptocurrency is essential to our strategy.”
Windtree did not immediately respond to Decrypt‘squestions.
BNB is the fifth-biggest digital coin with a $106.9 billion market cap. It was recently trading for $769, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The coin this week hit a new all-time high price of $808, before taking a dip.
The asset was launched in 2017 by Binance, the world’s biggest crypto marketplace, and previously ran on the Ethereum network. It then became the native coin of the BNB Chain—a crypto network used by developers to build decentralized apps.
Windtree is part of a wave of companies building crypto treasuries. Its stock on Friday is down by about 5%, but over the past month, it has risen by 162%.
Chinese blockchain infrastructure firm Nano Labs this week announced plans to buy $1 billion worth of BNB, and its stock pumped as a result.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) was the first publicly traded company to start a Bitcoin-buying masterplan. The software firm is now the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 607,770 BTC—or $70.6 billion—in the leading cryptocurrency. The firm allows investors to buy its stock as a Bitcoin proxy.
Other publicly traded companies that have followed suit include Semler Scientific and Metaplanet, while other firms have bought assets like Solana, Ethereum, and XRP.
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ETH LEADS, MONEY SUPPLY HITS ATH, PUNKS CONTINUE TO SURGE
BTC dips as jobs data diminishes Fed rate cut hopes. US crypto inflows surge hit $60b YTD. Strategy increases pref stock offering to $2b. Tokyo’s Quantum Solutions plans to buy 3k BTC. ETH could outperform BTC for 6 months: Novogratz. Galaxy begins to sell large clips of BTC. BitMine plans $2.5b stock sale to buy ETH. SOL founder roadmaps low-latency on-chain trading. WindTree Therapeutics raises $520m to buy BNB. Expect stablecoin supply to surge $75b: BofA. Celestia Foundation buys $62.5m TIA. TON Foundation, Kingsway to launch treasury firm. Tron Inc. enters Nasdaq. Christie’s launches $1b real estate division for crypto. Zircuit launches AI trading engine. Woo X hacked for $12m
U.S. M2 money supply hit a record $22.02 trillion, but crypto markets continued to slide.
Analysts say liquidity remains sidelined in money markets, not flowing into risk assets like crypto.
High leverage, especially in altcoins, is driving forced selling and amplifying short-term volatility.
The U.S. money supply has climbed to a record high, but crypto markets continue to extend their decline, moving against a tide of rising liquidity.
The M2 money supply in the U.S. surged 4.5% year-over-year in June to a record $22.02 trillion, the Kobeissi Letter wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
The broad measure of money in circulation often correlates with asset prices, as increased liquidity tends to flow into markets, driving up inflation and valuations along with it.
So what gives?
Derek Lim, head of research at Caladan, a crypto market-making and trading firm, told Decrypt that U.S. liquidity is “currently pooled, not deployed.”
A significant portion of the $22 trillion is “sitting in money markets or short-duration Treasuries, not in risk assets,” essentially “dry powder” that hasn’t been converted into “risk-on capital” yet.
While it is a popular belief that Bitcoin tracks this metric, the crypto market capitalization has shed $117 billion since Wednesday, dropping from its peak of $4.05 trillion.
Analysts Decrypt previously spoke to are urging caution in the short term, attributing current volatility to market fatigue and profit-taking.
“We’re seeing elevated options activity and increasing liquidation risk,” Daniel Liu, CEO of Republic Technologies, told Decrypt. “Small price shifts can now trigger cascading liquidations or short squeezes depending on the direction.”
A cascading liquidation is a chain reaction of forced selling. A short squeeze occurs when there’s a rapid price increase that forces traders betting on a price drop to buy back, thereby further accelerating the direction of the price.
Altcoin leverage
Caladan’s Lim pointed to a “huge amount of leveraged longs, especially in altcoins,” as the major contributor to the ongoing selling. The expert said XRP’s single-day “$89 million long liquidation” was a clear example of “forced selling” accelerating.
“Even with loose liquidity, risk sentiment is cooling,” Lim said, adding that traders “are likely waiting for clarity before putting their money back to work.”
Bitcoin’s 3% slide since Thursday’s peak has caused major altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, and XRP to shed 4.8%, 6.2% and 7.1%, respectively, CoinGecko data shows.
Ethereum faces a “$260 million in ask-side supply,” or the total volume of sell orders available at various prices on exchanges, that needs to be cleared for a clean break above $4,000, says Liu.
The uptrend could slow down as “profit-taking continues,” he added.
Solana, on the other hand, is more “fragile” with increased risk of liquidation as “leverage is currently outpacing spot demand.”
Despite the warning signs, Lim said it “looks more like a healthy correction, with no evidence of a cycle-ending breakdown yet.”
Echoing that sentiment, Liu suggests the current market decline amid the record surge in U.S. liquidity could be ephemeral.
“We’ve just come off a massive price rally, and the market needs time to consolidate,” he explained. “Expect short-term volatility across the board, but the long-term thesis remains intact.”
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Only BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin funds needed less time to reach $10 billion in assets.
ETHA has added $5 billion over a 10-day period ending Wednesday.
The surge in ETH ETF inflows has been closely intertwined with a dramatic surge in Ethereum’s price.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) has topped $10 billion in assets, marking the third-fastest ascent to that milestone in ETF history, Bloomberg data shows, in a sign of surging investor appetite for Ethereum.
ETHA needed just 251 days to reach this threshold, less time than all but the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fundspot Bitcoin funds, which needed just 34 days and 53 days, respectively.
The fund doubled in size over 10 days ending Wednesday, adding $5 billion in assets to become the shortest period ever for a fund to grow from that mark to $10 billion, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas told Decrypt.
“That five to $10 billion move, most of that’s the price, although the flows were really robust too,” Balchunas said. “So it was a nice combination of both. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ETF grow that quickly.
“This is very weird stuff,” he added.
The inflow surge has been closely intertwined with a dramatic spike in the asset, which on Monday approached $3,850, its highest point since December. It is currently trading about 3.5% below that at $3,710, according to CoinGecko data.
Analysts have attributed the increase, along with the rise of ETH treasuries, to growing interest in the funds, although Balchunas said the cause and effect was unclear.
“Flows in the price are like tangoing,” he said. “I don’t think the flows make the price go up. I don’t think the price makes the flows go up 100%. They feed off each other, but it’s not one for one. It’s a chicken or egg question.”
LOOK OUT: $ETHA just hit $10b in one year flat, the 3rd fastest ETF to hit that mark in history after (you guessed it) two bitcoin ETFs $IBIT & $FBTC. Amazingly it went from $5b to $10b in just 10 days (ETF asset equiv of a God candle). Is in Top 5 in flows 1M, 1W. Sister Hazel! pic.twitter.com/Jrrb15BdHV
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) July 24, 2025
After starting tepidly a year ago by the lofty standards of the spot Bitcoin funds that preceded it, Ethereum exchange-traded funds started to accelerate amid a friendlier environment for digital assets under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, including the recent passage of the GENIUS Act.
The legislation is expected to benefit Ethereum, the dominant platform for stablecoin transactions.
The nine U.S.-listed Ethereum ETFs generated more than $1.1 billion in inflows just over the first three days of this week alone, according to U.K. asset manager Farside Investors.
Still, the funds’ performance falls well short of the dramatic success of the 12 Bitcoin products that now hold more than $140 billion in AUM, led by IBIT, which now manages more than $70 billion in assets.
Those funds have also benefited from the surge in crypto markets and contributed to it.
In a text to Decrypt. ETF.com Senior Analyst Sumit Roy wrote that he was surprised at how long it took for ETF investors “to come around,” particularly after Bitcoin funds’ fast start.
“That all changed over the past few weeks as the mania over stablecoins and Ethereum Treasury companies gave the asset a shot in the arm,” he wrote.
“We’ll see if this is the catalyst that finally breaks Ethereum prices out of their trading range—it may or may not be,” he added. “Regardless, it signals that the demand for Ethereum ETFs has finally arrived.”
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HYPE is currently trading for just above $43.
That means Hyperliquid needs a 60% surge in price for the token to hit $69.69 before September.
Predictors on Myriad place the odds of that happening at 30%. Here’s what the charts have to say.
Will Hyperliquid’s native token continue to ride the HYPE and hit $69.69 by September? Degens are betting on it, but the odds aren’t currently in HYPE bulls’ favor.
Hyperliquid has captured the attention of the crypto trading trenches in recent months, with the platform generating roughly $1.78 trillion in derivatives trading volume in the last year, per a Dune dashboard from SeaLaunch. Naturally, Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE—which powers the platform—has likewise generated a ton of interest, pumping more than 550% since its launch according to CoinGecko.
On Myriad, a prediction market created by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, users aren’t convinced HYPE continues to build in the near term and hits the meme number before September. On Myriad, the odds are currently at 70% that the token is not gonna make it. So, if you took that bet, you’d earn 43 cents for each dollar you place on “no.” But you’d stand to make $2.33 for every dollar placed on “yes” and HYPE defies the odds and hits that magical $69.69 mark. That’s not a bad risk-reward ratio for those willing to bet against the consensus.
So why is HYPE so, er, hyped? Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange, or DEX, that operates on its own layer-1 blockchain, distinguishing itself from competitors by offering high-speed perpetual futures trading in a unique way. The platform supports a lot of different cryptocurrencies, such as BTC, ETH, AVAX, SOL, SUI, you name it. Since its November 2024 launch at $3.57, HYPE has demonstrated impressive growth, hitting an all-time high of $49.75 just weeks ago.
Recent developments including the HyperEVM mainnet launch in February have strengthened its ecosystem, while institutional interest has surged—with companies like Eyenovia investing $50 million in HYPE tokens, for example.
So what do the charts have to say about HYPE hitting $69.69 any time soon? Well, it’s complicated—but not impossible.
HYPE’s path to $69.69
Eyenovia can wait for HYPE to moon, but the predictors on Myriad Markets cannot. The market closes on August 31, 2025, at 11:59 PM UTC—the vertical white line in the chart below.
Hyperliquid price data. Image: TradingView
The daily chart reveals HYPE trading within a well-defined ascending channel that has contained price action since early 2025. Currently at $43.478, the token would need to rally approximately 60% to reach the $69.69 target—a significant but not unprecedented move in crypto markets.
The broader technical landscape offers additional insights into HYPE’s momentum:
The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, at 51 indicates neutral momentum—neither overbought nor oversold. Think of RSI as a thermometer that measures how hot a market might be. This middle-ground reading suggests the token has room to run higher without immediate selling pressure, but lacks the explosive buying momentum typically seen before major rallies. Traders often view RSI readings between 30-70 as a consolidation zone where accumulation occurs before the next directional move.
This means the current speed and momentum is enough to keep markets at some level of equilibrium, which itself means the trend may keep up its pace if all other conditions remain the same.
The Average Directional Index, or ADX, at 21, however, reveals a weakening trend strength. The ADX measures how strong a price trend is regardless of direction—readings below 25 indicate a weak trend, while numbers above 25 confirm a trend has been established.
Low ADX readings after a strong move often indicate consolidation before the next leg higher. This suggests HYPE may be gathering energy for its next move rather than maintaining the aggressive pace needed for a 60% rally in the very near term.
Also, traders could easily interpret this to mean that HYPE is about to enter a consolidation zone before a bearish correction, as its upward momentum loses strength. Traders who study charts would likely opt to read the ADX alongside other oscillators like the Squeeze Momentum Indicator to reach more accurate conclusions.
As for HYPE’s Exponential Moving Averages, the average price of the previous days, they show what traders would interpret as a bullish configuration. The 50-day EMA, the average price of HYPE over the last 50 days, is positioned above the 200-day EMA—a classic bullish formation. This alignment typically indicates sustained buying pressure and suggests the longer-term trend remains positive. However, the gap between these averages is relatively narrow. The token, though, is relatively new, with less than a year in the markets, so EMAs alone may not be good enough to read and time the markets.
The “off” status in the Squeeze Momentum Indicator suggests volatility has been released and the market is in a compression phase, proving the thesis of a weakening bull trend reading as measured by the low ADX. This indicator helps identify periods when Bollinger Bands contract, often preceding significant price movements. The current reading implies a breakout—in either direction—may be forming, but in the immediate time frame, prices may move slowly.
And that’s not good for predictors betting on a 60% spike happening in a few weeks.
In terms of just price behavior, though, HYPE has been trading inside a bullish channel since April 2025. This means it has been going through higher lows every time it dips and higher jumps every time it peaks.
However, based on the channel dynamics, three scenarios emerge with bullish outcomes:
If HYPE respects only the lower channel support (red line), the price could reach approximately $52-55 by September, falling short of the target.
Should the token find equilibrium at the mid-channel resistance (yellow line))—which has also acted as support during the current trend—HYPE could reach $58-62 by September, still below the coveted $69.69.
Even in the most optimistic case where HYPE hugs the upper channel resistance (green line), projections suggest the price would reach approximately $65-68 by September—very close but likely just shy of $69.69.
In other words, the charts would say it’s very unlikely the token trades at $69.69 before September. To hit that mark, the token would need to not only maintain its channel trajectory but accelerate beyond historical patterns—requiring significant catalysts or a broader crypto market rally.
