Bitcoin Near $67K as ECB and BoJ Hike Rates, Ethereum Hits 1 Million Developers

Crypto News

Bitcoin is trading near $67K this week, yet it remains roughly 48% below its October peak even as global liquidity climbs to records. The divergence has drawn analyst attention because global M2 money supply recently reached an all-time high near $135 trillion, while the S&P 500 trades close to record territory. Bitcoin historically tracked the same liquidity wave with higher volatility and a longer lag, but that link broke from early 2025. Analysts offer two readings: a convergent one, in which an asset this far below liquidity eventually closes the gap through price appreciation, and a structural one, suggesting the relationship itself may be weakening as the all-time high holder base changes.

Central banks reinforced the tightening backdrop. The European Central Bank raised its deposit rate 25 basis points to 2.25% on June 11, its first hike since September 2023, after euro-area inflation hit 3.2% in May with energy prices up 10.9% year over year. The Bank of Japan followed on June 16, lifting its key rate 25 basis points to 1%, the highest since 1995, on a 7-1 vote. Australia held at 4.35% after three earlier increases. The moves effectively end the global easing cycle that supported risk assets, even after Trump and Iran signed a June 15 peace accord reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Ethereum crossed one million lifetime developers, the largest talent base in the blockchain sector, with about 232,000 contributing actively over the past year. Co-founder Joseph Lubin tied the figure to a 2019 Devcon 5 keynote in Osaka titled when one million ETH developers, calling the milestone reached. The count spans everyone who has built on the network since launch, and the steady inflow of newcomers underscores resilient fundamentals despite weak prices. The milestone arrives as the community prepares the altcoin network for Glamsterdam, a protocol upgrade targeted for the third quarter of 2026 under the 2026 roadmap.

Beyond crypto, froth in AI-linked equities is feeding bubble concerns that ripple into risk markets. SanDisk posted a monthly relative strength index above 99, a level analysts say no publicly traded stock has reached. The reading followed a more than 780% year-to-date surge and over 5,400% since the firm split from Western Digital in February 2025, with shares near $2,138 against a roughly $38.50 IPO price. Revenue grew 251% year over year on AI memory demand, but readings above 70 typically flag overbought conditions, and critics draw comparisons to the dot-com era when valuations detached from earnings before a sharp correction.

Regulatory pressure intensified in Europe. Binance is set to lose its bid for an EU licence after its application in Greece is expected to be turned down, according to two sources, a decision that would strip the exchange of permission to offer services to clients across the bloc. The setback lands as the EU enforces its harmonized markets-in-crypto-assets framework, under which a single national rejection can foreclose passporting rights throughout member states, raising the stakes for global platforms seeking onshore approval in a tightening compliance environment.

Institutional scrutiny of crypto data is also rising. Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards argued that up to 99% of on-chain metrics amount to noise, useful only to those who know which signals matter and how each is constructed. CryptoQuant research head Julio Moreno said professional desks now cross-check on-chain figures against traditional data they already trust. The clearest cautionary example came from the FTX collapse: exchange-reserve data shows holdings fell from 20,177 BTC on November 6 to 0.64 BTC by November 8, 2022, draining days before the price reacted and demonstrating how methodology divides providers reading the same on-chain ledger.

Taken together, these threads describe a market caught between tightening macro conditions and durable builder fundamentals. COINOTAG aggregate data frames the caution: the Fear & Greed Index sits at 23, deep in Extreme Fear, while Bitcoin dominance holds at 69.6% and total crypto market capitalization stands near $1.92 trillion, signaling capital consolidating into majors rather than chasing risk. With central banks abandoning easing, a major exchange facing EU exclusion, and AI valuations stretched, liquidity is no longer a tailwind. Yet Ethereum's million-developer base and the institutional turn toward verified on-chain data point to maturing infrastructure that may outlast the current bear market sentiment.