Crypto Market Update: Bitcoin Consolidates Amid Mixed Whale Activity

Bitcoin price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$78,451.20, down by one percent over the past 24 hours.

In a market report sent to the Investing News Network, Simon-Peter Massabni, head of business development at XS.com, noted that Bitcoin is recovering from a mild correction, experiencing a mix of inconsistent whale accumulation, strong support from spot Bitcoin ETFs and increased speculative activity in futures.

“The current bull run still needs stronger on-chain accumulation from whales and humpbacks to support a sustained advance,” Massabni wrote, adding that the current period could offer Bitcoin holders an opportunity to build positions as current geopolitical signals indicate reduced risk of another major shock to energy markets.

Bitcoin price chart

Ether and altcoin price update

• Ethereum (ETH) was priced at US$2,471.80 , trading 0.1 percent higher over the last 24 hours.

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.38, down 6.1 percent over the past 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$96.65, 1.3 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

Read on for a round-up of the biggest crypto market news:

• Crypto market flips to "extreme greed" as treasury buybacks fuel rally
• Grayscale launches first spot Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca
• Japan prepares blockchain network for instant stock, bond settlement
• Rayls launches Sovereign
• Bitwise launches ATPs powered by Coinbase and Glider
• Stable Sea expands WisdomTree relationship

Crypto market flips to "extreme greed" as treasury buybacks fuel rally

The cryptocurrency market entered "extreme greed" territory for the first time since late 2024 as the Crypto Fear and Greed Index on Coinmarketcap hit 81 late Sunday evening.

The index broke cleanly above the 80 threshold, signaling panicked buying and intense market conviction after spending nearly a year trapped in fear. This 45-point surge over the last 30 days marks the fastest sentiment shift between extremes since Coinmarketcap began tracking the metric.

The sentiment flip bottomed at an extreme fear score of 5 on February 5 before completing a full round trip to 81 in less than six months.

A massive Bitcoin rally drove the sentiment surge, with the asset gaining roughly 24 percent in a single week and expanding its market dominance over altcoins. The price breakout began when the US Treasury announced plans to double its long-bond buybacks to US$4 billion per operation starting September 9.

A forced short squeeze accelerated the price explosion, liquidating more than US$4 billion in bearish crypto positions as Bitcoin cleared US$70,000.

Grayscale launches first spot Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca

Grayscale launched the Zcash ETF under ticker ZCSH on NYSE Arca as an exchange-traded product.

The product marks the first ETP globally offering spot exposure to the Zcash token, a digital asset designed for private decentralized transactions.

Zcash combines Bitcoin's 21-million coin supply cap and proof-of-work model with optional shielding technology that hides sender, recipient, and transaction amounts. Users can maintain complete privacy or utilize viewing keys to selectively disclose transaction details to regulators and auditors.

The Zcash network completed its Ironwood upgrade in July 2026. The new ETP structure allows retail and institutional investors to trade ZEC through traditional brokerage accounts without managing private cryptographic keys.

Japan prepares blockchain network for instant stock, bond settlement

Japan plans to build a blockchain payment infrastructure to enable real-time settlement for domestic stocks and government bonds, according to Nikkei as reported by Reuters.

The Financial Services Agency, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan, and private financial institutions will launch a joint study group this summer. The working group expects to formulate a comprehensive development blueprint around early 2027.

The development plan will establish the underlying blockchain architecture, assign agency responsibilities, and map out operational timelines. Regulators expect operational deployment within a few years, targeting full platform activation by the early 2030s.

Rayls launches Sovereign

Financial infrastructure provider Rayls has unveiled Rayls Sovereign, an open-source, private blockchain platform built specifically for banks and financial institutions.

Installed within an institution’s existing tech stack, the platform is designed to bridge the gap between traditional banking and onchain finance. “Financial institutions need a secure and practical way to bring assets and financial processes onchain while maintaining control over their data, systems and governance,” said Marcos Viriato, CEO of Parfin and core developer of Rayls, whose partners also include Tether, Mastercard and Accenture. “Rayls Sovereign gives each institution its own environment for onchain operations, with the connectivity needed to transact across wider markets without forcing institutions to compromise on privacy or control.”

Providing both efficiency and strict privacy control, Rayls Sovereign allows regulated firms to manage on-chain financial activity like tokenized deposits and stablecoins within their own secure environment, while retaining the ability to transact across public blockchain networks.

Built for scale, the platform supports over 15,000 transactions per second with sub-second settlement finality. The technology is already supporting live, high-volume production at major institutions like Núclea, Brazil's largest payment FMI, and XP, which uses Rayls infrastructure for its fully US dollar-backed stablecoin, USDXP.

“USDXP proved that institutional-grade digital assets can run in production without compromising control or compliance. Rayls Sovereign extends that same principle further, giving highly regulated institutions like ours a dedicated environment to continue building,” said Marcos Horie, head of XP’s digital assets.

Institutions can access the platform via a public GitHub repository or a Rayls-managed sandbox to test integration before moving to commercial production.ds

Bitwise launches ATPs powered by Coinbase and Glider

Crypto asset manager Bitwise, in collaboration with Coinbase and technology platform Glider, has introduced Automated Token Portfolios (ATPs), institutionally designed portfolios of tokenized stocks that users can replicate automatically in their wallets.

Available to eligible users outside the United States, the new feature allows individuals to hold digital representations of top stock groupings, like big tech leaders, AI pioneers or robotics companies, from their personal digital wallets.

Investors retain complete ownership of digital stock tokens in a private wallet, while software automatically keeps the mix balanced according to Bitwise’s expert models.

“For over a century, getting a professional model meant handing your assets to a fund. ATPs mean you can keep the assets in your own wallet, and the model comes to you,” said Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise. “ATPs unlock a new way for people to access thematic exposures more quickly and precisely than many traditional structures. We’re just scratching the surface.”

Stable Sea expands WisdomTree relationship

Stable Sea is expanding its partnership with asset manager WisdomTree to offer two new digital funds aimed at helping businesses earn returns on their idle cash.

The WisdomTree Short-Duration Income Digital Fund (WTSIX) and the WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Digital Fund (FLTTX) will allow companies to access regulated funds holding US government-backed and short-term debt products through the Stable Sea dashboard. These newly added funds build upon current access to the WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX) on Stable Sea Terminal, which began in April 2026

Historically, high entry minimums, often in the millions, have restricted high-earning cash management tools to massive corporations.

“US businesses collectively hold more than US$5 trillion in cash and cash equivalent accounts that earn minimal to no interest, and most of them have no simple way to change that,” explained Tanner Taddeo, CEO and co-founder of Stable Sea. “Adding WTSIX and FLTTX gives finance teams real choice — not just a single yield-bearing option, but a ladder of tokenized funds they can match to the cash flow needs of their business. That's the same kind of cash segmentation large treasury desks have used for decades, now available to any operator inside one platform.”