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Bitcoin Falls Below $64,000 as $100 Million in Crypto Liquidations Hit The Market

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Bitcoin experienced a sharp decline on Monday, slipping back below the $64,000 level as leveraged positions across the crypto market faced significant pressure.

The crypto asset’s recent price drop, comes after it reclaimed the $66,000 level last week, marking a significant milestone and reigniting optimism across the cryptocurrency market.

According to recent real-time market updates, approximately $100 million worth of positions were liquidated in just the past 60 minutes following the drop.

A price chart from the period shows a steep red candle on the BTC/USD pair, with Bitcoin trading as low as $63,415 at the time of this report. The rapid downward move erased recent gains and triggered automatic closures of long positions as prices breached key support thresholds.

This latest volatility comes amid broader market fluctuations seen throughout 2026. Bitcoin has oscillated in the $60,000 to $67,000 range in recent weeks, with similar liquidation events occurring during prior dips below $64,000.

Such cascades are often driven by leveraged trading, where forced selling accelerates price movements once certain levels are broken.

Market participants are closely watching upcoming macroeconomic events, including the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, for potential impacts on risk assets like cryptocurrency.

Prominent crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe, highlights Bitcoin holding above its 21-day and 50-day moving averages as a bullish signal for continued upside in the near term.

In a chart posted on X, it shows BTC recovering from June lows near $58k, with key MA support levels now acting as critical floors amid price action around $63k in late July 2026. Van de Poppe further cautions that a break below these MAs would likely trigger the first meaningful shakeout or correction in the current consolidation phase.??????????????????????????????????????????????????

Also, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor, earlier stated that Bitcoin could be entering a new phase after months of weakness, suggesting that the market may have already found its bottom.

Speaking live on CNBC, Saylor said Bitcoin peaked near $125,000 in October before falling to around $60,000. He now believes the market is entering what he called the “spring phase.”

While some traders view current levels as potential buying opportunities given Bitcoin’s historical resilience, others warn of further tests toward lower supports if liquidations continue.

They predict that Bitcoin’s current $64K-$65K consolidation will end soon with a bulltrap, dropping to $54K next week and $41K by August, before rebounding to $55K and eventually $167K.

With the cryptocurrency market showing renewed signs of confidence as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has climbed out of the “Extreme Fear” zone, Bitcoin remains in a highly sensitive trading environment where short-term moves can be amplified by derivatives activity.

Outlook

Looking ahead, Bitcoin’s near-term direction is likely to depend on whether buyers can defend the $63,000–$64,000 support zone. A sustained hold above this range could restore confidence and pave the way for another attempt at reclaiming $66,000 and potentially higher resistance levels.

However, a decisive breakdown below key moving averages and support levels may trigger additional long liquidations, increasing the likelihood of a deeper correction toward the $60,000 psychological level or lower.

Despite the current volatility, many long-term market participants remain optimistic that Bitcoin is still within a broader bullish cycle. However, analysts caution that heightened leverage in the derivatives market means sharp price swings are likely to persist.

Expanding Perpetual Trading, RWAs, and New Onchain Markets on Solana Drive Growth

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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The Solana ecosystem continues to expand beyond traditional decentralized finance, with a new wave of protocols introducing advanced trading infrastructure, real-world asset exposure, and innovative financial products.

Recent launches from Lexur, Doppler Protocol, Hylo, Bullet, and TrydApital highlight a growing trend: Solana is becoming a hub for high-performance markets where traders can access perpetual contracts, tokenized assets, leveraged positions, and social trading experiences.

One of the latest developments is the public beta launch of Lexur, a platform designed to aggregate Solana-based perpetual futures markets.

By connecting liquidity and trading opportunities across protocols such as Pacifica, Jupiter, Bullet, and other decentralized exchanges, Lexur aims to simplify the fragmented experience currently faced by perpetual traders.

Perpetual futures have become one of the fastest-growing sectors in decentralized finance because they allow traders to gain leveraged exposure without owning the underlying asset.

Liquidity fragmentation across multiple platforms often creates challenges, including inconsistent pricing, limited market depth, and complex user experiences.

Lexur’s aggregation model attempts to solve these issues by providing a unified trading interface where users can access different Solana perpetual markets from a single platform.

The launch comes as Solana’s DeFi ecosystem matures, with developers increasingly focusing on professional trading tools that compete with centralized exchanges. Faster transaction speeds and lower fees have made Solana attractive for high-frequency trading applications, derivatives platforms, and institutional-focused financial products.

Another major development is the mainnet launch of Doppler Protocol, adding new infrastructure to the Solana blockchain. While details around its broader adoption will continue to develop, the deployment represents another step toward expanding the network’s decentralized application ecosystem.

Mainnet launches typically mark a transition from testing phases into real-world usage, allowing developers and users to interact with fully operational protocols.

Meanwhile, Hylo introduced xBTC, a product designed to provide liquidation-resistant 3x Bitcoin exposure onchain.

Leveraged Bitcoin products have traditionally carried significant risks because sudden market movements can trigger liquidations and force traders out of positions. Hylo’s approach focuses on reducing those risks while maintaining leveraged exposure through decentralized mechanisms.

The introduction of xBTC reflects a broader industry trend toward creating more sophisticated financial instruments on blockchain networks. As crypto markets evolve, users are seeking products that provide greater capital efficiency while reducing the risks associated with traditional leveraged trading.

Bulletxyz also expanded Solana’s trading capabilities by launching 24/7 leveraged markets for commodities and equities-related assets. The platform enables users to trade metals, oil, and chipmakers with up to 10x leverage, bringing traditional market exposure into a blockchain environment.

The move represents increasing demand for around-the-clock access to financial markets. Unlike traditional exchanges that operate within specific hours, blockchain-based platforms can provide continuous trading opportunities, allowing users worldwide to react instantly to global economic events.

Adding another layer to the ecosystem, TrydApital launched Dapital, a social trading network focused on real-world assets (RWAs), meme assets, and cryptocurrencies. Social trading platforms allow users to follow strategies, discover opportunities, and interact with other traders.

By combining social engagement with blockchain-based markets, Dapital aims to create a community-driven investment experience.

The growth of these platforms signals a broader transformation happening across decentralized finance.

Solana is increasingly moving beyond simple token swaps and lending applications toward a complete financial ecosystem featuring derivatives, tokenized assets, leverage products, and social investment networks.

As more protocols launch and liquidity improves, Solana’s role in the future of onchain finance could continue expanding. The combination of high-speed infrastructure, innovative financial products, and growing developer activity positions the network as a significant competitor in the next phase of decentralized market evolution.

Thea AI Launches AI Inference Routing and Settlement, Advancing Decentralized AI Infrastructure

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

The intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology continues to expand as developers seek new ways to make AI systems more accessible, transparent, and economically efficient.

Thea AI has introduced AI inference routing and settlement, creating a framework designed to connect AI models, users, and decentralized infrastructure through faster and more scalable blockchain-based coordination.

AI inference, the process where trained artificial intelligence models generate outputs from user requests, has become one of the most important components of the modern AI economy.

As demand for AI applications grows, challenges around computing costs, model availability, payment systems, and resource allocation have become increasingly significant.

Thea AI’s launch aims to address these issues by building a decentralized layer where AI inference requests can be efficiently routed and settled on Solana’s high-performance network.

Solana’s blockchain infrastructure provides a foundation suited for applications requiring speed, low transaction costs, and high throughput. By leveraging Solana, Thea AI can create a marketplace-like environment where AI workloads can be coordinated between different providers and consumers.

This approach could help reduce dependence on centralized AI infrastructure providers while enabling more open participation in the AI economy. The concept of AI inference routing focuses on intelligently directing user requests to the most suitable AI models or computing providers.

Instead of relying on a single AI system, decentralized routing can evaluate available resources, performance requirements, and cost efficiency to determine the optimal destination for each request. This creates a more flexible environment where multiple AI models can compete and collaborate.

Settlement is another critical component of Thea AI’s infrastructure. Blockchain-based settlement allows transactions between AI service providers and users to be recorded transparently and executed efficiently.

Solana’s fast confirmation times and low fees make it an attractive network for handling frequent AI-related transactions, including payments for computing resources, model usage, and automated services.

The launch reflects a broader trend of combining decentralized networks with artificial intelligence capabilities. The emerging field of decentralized AI, often referred to as DeAI, focuses on creating alternatives to traditional AI systems dominated by large technology companies.

Blockchain networks can provide ownership mechanisms, transparent verification, and economic incentives that encourage wider participation in AI development. AI inference routing could unlock new opportunities to build applications without maintaining expensive infrastructure.

Startups and independent developers may gain access to a wider range of AI models and computing resources, allowing them to create innovative products while reducing operational costs. AI providers can potentially monetize unused computing capacity by participating in decentralized networks.

Thea AI’s deployment on Solana also highlights the blockchain’s growing role beyond financial applications.

While Solana initially gained recognition through decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and consumer applications, its ecosystem has increasingly expanded into areas such as artificial intelligence, real-world assets, and decentralized infrastructure.

The combination of AI and blockchain represents a significant shift in how digital services may be built and distributed. AI systems require massive computational resources, while blockchain networks provide transparent coordination and programmable economic systems.

Bringing these technologies together could create new models for how intelligence is accessed, paid for, and shared. Issues such as data privacy, model quality, verification of AI outputs, and competition with established cloud providers will determine how quickly these systems can gain adoption.

Ensuring reliable performance and maintaining security will be essential as decentralized AI networks mature. Thea AI’s launch of AI inference routing and settlement on Solana marks another step toward building an open AI economy powered by blockchain infrastructure.

As demand for artificial intelligence services continues to accelerate, platforms that combine decentralized coordination with scalable networks could play an important role in shaping the future of AI accessibility and innovation.

Barclays Posts Stronger-Than-Expected First-Half Profit, Boosts Shareholder Payouts As Investment Banking Drives Growth

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

Barclays reported a stronger-than-expected 17% increase in first-half profit on Tuesday, fueled by robust investment banking performance and a surge in equities trading as volatile financial markets lifted client activity.

The results reinforced the earnings power of the bank’s diversified business model, although investors sent the shares lower as expectations had already risen following blockbuster trading results from Wall Street rivals.

Britain’s third-largest listed lender posted pre-tax profit of £6.1 billion ($8.11 billion) for the six months ended June, exceeding analysts’ average forecast of £5.94 billion.

Despite the earnings beat, Barclays shares fell nearly 5% in early trading, reflecting investor concerns that the bank’s trading performance, particularly in equities, failed to match the exceptional results delivered by major U.S. investment banks.

The decline also highlighted how elevated expectations have become after Barclays’ shares climbed nearly 50% over the past year, making it one of the strongest-performing banking stocks in Europe.

The bank coupled its earnings announcement with fresh capital returns to shareholders, unveiling a £1 billion share buyback, comfortably above analysts’ expectations of £831 million, alongside £800 million in dividend payments. The move underscores management’s confidence in the bank’s capital position and earnings outlook while continuing its strategy of returning excess capital to investors.

Barclays also raised its full-year income guidance to £31.5 billion, up from its previous forecast of £31 billion, and said it remains on track to achieve the financial targets it has set for 2026.

Investment Banking Remains The Key Differentiator

The results once again highlighted Barclays’ unique position among British lenders. Unlike domestic-focused competitors such as Lloyds and NatWest, Barclays derives a substantial portion of its earnings from its global investment banking franchise, allowing it to benefit from periods of heightened market activity that often accompany geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility.

The investment banking division generated £4 billion in income during the second quarter, comfortably ahead of analysts’ expectations of £3.7 billion.

Equities trading was the standout performer, with revenue jumping 45% from a year earlier as institutional investors increased trading activity amid sharp market swings triggered by the conflict involving Iran, changing expectations for interest rates and continued enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related stocks.

However, while the growth was impressive in absolute terms, it still trailed the performance of leading U.S. banks, whose equities trading revenue increased by an average of 69%, helped by exceptionally strong client activity and a surge in capital markets transactions, including the highly anticipated SpaceX initial public offering.

Barclays also underperformed in fixed-income trading, traditionally one of its strongest businesses.

Revenue from fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading rose just 1%, well below the 13% average increase recorded by the five largest U.S. investment banks, according to Reuters calculations.

The comparison illustrates the competitive challenge Barclays continues to face in narrowing the performance gap with Wall Street’s biggest investment banking franchises, which benefit from larger client bases and greater scale across global capital markets.

Market Volatility Continues To Support Trading Businesses

Financial market volatility has been a significant earnings driver for investment banks this year. Geopolitical tensions, fluctuating oil prices, shifting expectations for central bank policy and rapid developments in artificial intelligence have prompted institutional investors to rebalance portfolios more frequently, boosting demand for trading services.

At the same time, a revival in mergers and acquisitions and an increase in initial public offerings have generated stronger advisory and underwriting fees across the industry, providing another source of earnings growth for investment banks.

Barclays’ results suggest it continues to benefit from these trends, although not to the same extent as some of its U.S. competitors.

But one area that tempered the otherwise solid earnings report was the bank’s guidance on costs. Barclays said it expects an additional £500 million in expenses during the second half of the year, including investments aimed at simplifying its operations and improving efficiency.

Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross said up to £300 million would be spent on structural initiatives designed to streamline the organisation.

“We anticipate spending up to £300 million in structural cost actions, directly related to making the organisation simpler, such as platform change processes,” Cross told reporters during a conference call.

While the additional spending will weigh on near-term profitability, management views the investments as necessary to reduce long-term operating costs and improve efficiency across the business.

Political Uncertainty Remains A Key Focus

Barclays is the first major British lender to report earnings this reporting season, with investors also closely monitoring the policy agenda of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government.

Britain’s banking sector has enjoyed record profitability over the past several years, benefiting from higher interest rates and resilient loan demand. That performance has fueled speculation that the new government could consider increasing taxes on banks or introducing additional sector-specific levies.

Those concerns eased after Reuters reported last week that Burnham’s administration is expected to maintain the previous government’s broadly pro-growth approach toward the financial services industry, providing some reassurance for investors.

Barclays’ latest results bolster the temerity of its diversified business model, with investment banking continuing to offset pressures in other parts of the business. The higher income guidance, stronger-than-expected profit and larger shareholder distributions point to continued confidence in the bank’s financial position.

However, Tuesday’s share price decline indicates that investors are demanding more than solid earnings. After a year of strong stock market gains and record trading performances by major U.S. banks, markets are increasingly focused on whether Barclays can close the performance gap with its Wall Street peers while managing higher restructuring costs and navigating an uncertain political and economic landscape in the UK.

Blockaid H1 2026 Onchain Security Report Finds Crypto Lost $1.1B Across 212 Exploits

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Blockaid, the blockchain security company protecting more than $500 billion in digital assets and screening over 500 million blockchain transactions each month.

Today released its H1 2026 Onchain Security Report, finding that the crypto security landscape is expanding beyond traditional smart contract vulnerabilities as attackers increasingly target operational systems, infrastructure dependencies, and emerging technology layers.

The report analyzed more than 212 verified exploit incidents during the first half of 2026, representing approximately $1.1 billion in losses. H1 2026 recorded the highest exploit volume by incident count, with attackers targeting a wider range of systems including smart contracts, signer infrastructure, bridge systems, wallets, and off-chain services.

While smart contract vulnerabilities remained the most common exploit type by incident count, operational security attacks, including compromised credentials, private keys, signer infrastructure, bridge infrastructure, and backend systems, accounted for approximately $789 million, or 74%, of total funds stolen.

The findings show that the largest losses in H1 2026 came from attacks targeting the systems and access controls used to operate blockchain infrastructure.

As organizations continue adopting stablecoins, tokenized assets, and onchain settlement, protecting the infrastructure and operational controls behind digital assets has become an increasingly important security priority.

The biggest crypto attacks are no longer just breaking code. They’re compromising the systems and access points that control it, said Ido Ben-Natan, Co-Founder and CEO of Blockaid. The largest incidents we analyzed this year began with compromised credentials, signer infrastructure, or operational controls.

As digital assets become part of the broader financial system, organizations need security strategies that protect the entire transaction lifecycle, from authorization to execution.

Suspected North Korea-linked Attackers Account for 55% of H1 Losses

The report found that suspected North Korea-linked threat actors accounted for approximately 55% of all exploit losses during the first half of 2026. The two largest incidents of the period were in April.

The Drift Protocol compromise and the KelpDAO / LayerZero DVN compromise — represented approximately $577 million in losses, or roughly 52% of total H1 losses. Including Humanity Protocol, which has been attributed to the same broader attacker cluster, the total reached approximately $609 million, about 55% of all H1 losses

Across these incidents, attackers relied on similar tactics, including social engineering campaigns, compromised developer or employee access, and theft of privileged signing capabilities.

The findings highlight how a small number of sophisticated threat actors can drive a significant share of industry-wide losses by targeting operational weaknesses, rather than relying solely on vulnerabilities in deployed code.

Operational Security Attacks Drive Majority of Losses

Blockaid found that operational security attacks accounted for approximately $789 million in losses during H1 2026, despite representing a smaller share of incidents than smart contract exploits. The largest operational security incidents included:

KelpDAO / LayerZero DVN compromise: A $292 million loss involving compromised infrastructure and signer access. Drift Protocol compromise: A $285 million loss involving a compromised signer environment.

Humanity Protocol compromise: A $32 million loss linked to the same broader attacker cluster behind several other operational compromises. These incidents demonstrate how attackers are increasingly targeting privileged access points used to authorize and execute transactions, rather than directly exploiting blockchain code.

Although H1 2026 losses were lower than the record-setting levels seen in 2025, the number of incidents increased significantly. Blockaid recorded 212 verified exploit incidents during H1 2026. The first half of 2026 alone represented approximately 3.4 times the full-year 2025 incident count.

A small number of large incidents continued to account for the majority of losses. The top four incidents — KelpDAO, Drift, Resolv, and CowSwap — represented approximately $707 million, or 64%, of total H1 losses. However, excluding those incidents, more than 200 additional attacks still resulted in approximately $358 million in losses.

The data shows that while mega-exploits continue to drive headlines, attackers are also targeting a broader range of protocols, applications, and infrastructure components.

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