Crypto Market Update: Tether Doubles Down With US$150 Million Gold.com Stake

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$70,760.96, trading flat over 24 hours.

The Bitcoin price fell sharply this week, breaking below the closely watched US$70,000 level and trading as low as roughly US$60,300 before stabilizing near US$65,000. The US$70,000 mark had become a crowded positioning zone for traders, and mechanically driven selling took over once it failed.

In addition, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to nine, its lowest reading in nearly four years, while futures open interest slid toward multi-month lows, signaling defensive positioning rather than dip buying.

In an email to the Investing News Network, Ray Youssef, CEO of the P2P platform NoOnes, said he believes the market is unlikely to see a V-shaped recovery before mid-2026, and that short-term rebounds of between 20 and 30 percent may turn out to be bull traps during a necessary long accumulation phase:

"The exact location of the Bitcoin bottom remains unclear, but current dynamics increasingly suggest that the market has entered a protracted reassessment of risks. The key factor here is the political and monetary cycle in the US. It is crucial for (US President Donald) Trump to approach the November Senate and House elections with a positive backdrop in stock markets, including cryptocurrency, meaning that each subsequent Fed meeting could be a turning point.

“The March and April Fed meetings, as well as (Chair Jerome) Powell's departure in May and the possible appointment of Kevin Warsh, could be particularly critical in the current cycle. The second half of the year, with a series of meetings in June, July, September, and October, could become a platform for restoring optimism, but inflation remains the decisive constraint: if CPI, PPI, or PCE surge again, the room for policy easing will shrink sharply.”

He added that institutionalization has made the decline more painful, with large capital now exiting positions, ensuring the return of institutional demand will be cautious. Retail capital accumulation is predicted to be slow due to 2025 to 2026 losses, though Trump might use administrative resources to accelerate a pre-November 2026 pump.

Reputational damage from the October 2025 crash has caused deeper disillusionment, leading to the market being perceived as speculative. Given that the market is in an accumulation phase, a "gradual accumulation of positions with a long-term horizon" is recommended for spot investors.

Ether (ETH) was priced at US$2,126.41, up by 1.1 percent over the last 24 hours.

Altcoin price update

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.45, up by 1.2 over 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$87.67, up by 0.8 percent over 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

Tether deepens gold push with US$150 million stake in Gold.com

Tether has made a US$150 million investment in Gold.com, acquiring roughly a 12 percent minority stake as it moves to broaden access to both tokenized and physical gold. The deal sets up a long-term partnership that will integrate Tether’s gold-backed token, XAU₮, into Gold.com’s platform and explore ways for customers to buy physical gold using digital currencies such as USDT and the newly launched, federally regulated USA₮.

The move comes as gold pushes above US$5,000 per ounce, reinforcing demand for hard asset exposure amid geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. Tether said the gold-backed stablecoin market has nearly tripled over the past year to more than US$5.5 billion, with XAU₮ accounting for over 60 percent of total market value.

The company says XAU₮ is backed 1:1 by allocated physical gold, with about 140 metric tons in total held in secure vaults and each token linked to a specific London Good Delivery bar.

Cango sells Bitcoin to fund AI compute pivot

Cango (NYSE:CANG) announced the sale of 4,451 BTC on the open market for about US$305 million, with the proceeds used to partially repay a Bitcoin-collateralized loan as well as strengthen its balance sheet.

The Bitcoin-mining company said the move reduces financial leverage and creates capacity to fund its pivot into artificial intelligence (AI) compute infrastructure, aligning with the thesis from Frank Holmes of US Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) that Bitcoin miners are uniquely positioned to become AI compute providers by repurposing their power‑rich, leveraging its existing grid‑connected mining sites to provide distributed GPU‑powered capacity.

That pivot will unfold in phases, starting with modular, containerized GPU nodes deployed across current locations to quickly serve inference demand from small and medium‑sized enterprises, followed by a software orchestration layer to unify and scale that distributed compute network.

South Korea tightens scrutiny after Bithumb’s distribution error

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service has moved to strengthen oversight of crypto exchanges following a major error at Bithumb that briefly flooded user accounts with billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.

The incident occurred when customers were mistakenly credited with roughly 2,000 BTC each instead of small promotional rewards, triggering panic selling and a sharp price dislocation on the exchange.

Bitcoin prices on Bithumb fell as much as 30 percent below global levels before trading and withdrawals were halted.

Authorities said the episode exposed “vulnerabilities and risks” in virtual asset systems and raised concerns about internal controls and reserve backing. “It is a case that shows the structural problems of electronic systems for virtual assets,” said Lee Chan-jin, governor of South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service.

Regulators plan to introduce tougher penalties for IT failures and expand monitoring tools that flag suspicious trading patterns in real time. Of the more than 620,000 BTC mistakenly distributed, nearly all have been recovered.

Ripple Custody upgrades institutional platform

Ripple Custody announced it is expanding and upgrading its institutional‑grade digital asset custody platform by integrating Securosys’ CyberVault HSM and CloudHSM.

The move will allow banks, custodians and other regulated firms to store and manage cryptographic keys in hardened hardware security modules, reducing setup time, cost and complexity while meeting strict regulatory requirements.

Ripple has also partnered with staking infrastructure provider Figment so that Ripple Custody clients can offer staking for proof‑of‑stake networks like Ethereum and Solana, enabling banks and custodians to let their customers earn staking rewards without having to build and run their own validator nodes or give up control over operations.

The change allows institutions to store and manage cryptographic keys in hardened hardware security models, reducing setup time, cost and complexity while meeting strict regulatory requirements.

FDIC settles FOIA fight over crypto "pause letters"

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has agreed to pay US$188,440 in legal fees and drop its effort to withhold crypto-related “pause letters,” settling a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit tied to alleged debanking practices.

The case stemmed from a records request filed by History Associates on behalf of Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), seeking documents that showed how banks were allegedly pressured to halt or limit crypto activities.

A federal court ruled last year that the FDIC violated FOIA by categorically withholding the letters rather than reviewing them individually. “We successfully uncovered dozens of crypto ‘pause letters’ — indisputable proof of OCP2.0,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote on X after the settlement.