Crypto Bleeds as Bitcoin Sinks to $62K, Hayes Dumps HYPE and NEAR, Kalshi Pushes Into Brokerages

Crypto News

A fresh selloff swept across digital assets on Wednesday and into Thursday, with Bitcoin tumbling roughly 6% to $62,600 and dragging the broader market with it. Ethereum slid 6% to $1,750, Solana lost 9% to $68.40 and Hyperliquid retreated 9% to $65.70. Unlike previous sessions, the recent alt-season darlings were not spared: ZEC dropped 12%, NEAR plunged 18% and VVV gave back 12%, all after hitting local highs only a day earlier. Spot ETFs have now logged eleven consecutive sessions of outflows totaling roughly $1.4 billion this week, while STRC trading $5 below par has added pressure to sentiment as price approaches cycle lows near $60,000.

Arthur Hayes intensified the mood by disclosing that he had fully liquidated his HYPE and NEAR positions, arguing that a macro top is forming. He cited three drivers: rising energy costs tied to the Iran conflict and inventory restocking, three mega artificial-intelligence IPOs queued between now and early Q3, and a potential political pivot against AI heading into the autumn. His call landed during an already fragile tape, accelerating the unwind in the very altcoin names that had led the previous leg higher. HYPE, which traded as high as $75 before the dump, became the most visible casualty of the deleveraging cascade.

Retail brokerage moomoo expanded into event-driven trading through a partnership with Kalshi, giving eligible users access to CFTC-regulated contracts on Federal Reserve rate decisions, inflation prints, elections and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Contracts price between $0.01 and $1, reflecting implied probabilities, and sit alongside equities, options and ETFs in the app. Combined monthly volume across Kalshi and Polymarket climbed from under $5 billion in September 2025 to about $24 billion by April 2026, evidence that prediction markets have outgrown their post-election novelty phase and are pulling brokerages into a new derivatives category targeting macro-aware retail traders.

Washington is moving to rein in that same category. Representative Bryan Steil said he intends to insert language into H.R. 7008, the House bill prohibiting lawmakers, spouses and dependents from buying publicly traded equities, that would extend the ban to prediction markets including Polymarket and Kalshi. Violators would face penalties equal to $2,000 or 10% of the position value, whichever is larger, plus forfeiture of gains. The push follows a House Oversight probe led by James Comer into alleged insider activity on event-contract venues, and arrives weeks after a U.S. soldier was accused of trading on military operations in Venezuela.

Geopolitical risk continued to bleed into the crypto policy debate. Russia sanctioned 17-year-old British researcher Alexander Browder over a report alleging that the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin was backed by deposits from a sanctioned Russian lender and used to bypass Western restrictions tied to the war in Ukraine. The token has processed more than $110 billion in onchain transactions and remains sanctioned in the UK, US and EU since October 2025. Browder, son of activist Bill Browder, urged Western governments to pressure the specific exchanges enabling fiat conversion, framing A7A5 as a live test of stablecoin enforcement.

Indian regulator SEBI issued an interim order against Rajesh Exports, the gold major behind Swiss refiner Valcambi, alleging that the company misrepresented roughly $158 billion in revenue between FY 2020-21 and FY 2024-25 — equal to 99.8% of subsidiary earnings booked over the period. Chairman Rajesh Mehta has been barred from the securities market pending a fresh forensic audit. Regulators flagged $1.3 billion in disputed broker transactions and allege company funds were routed to Mehta's personal derivatives account without board approval. The case lands as tokenized gold expands and investors reassess physical-bullion disclosure standards across the gold safe-haven complex.

The dominant narrative this cycle is one of risk-off compression colliding with regulatory tightening. Bear-market mechanics are reasserting themselves as Bitcoin tests cycle support, ETF outflows accelerate and the highest-beta altcoins surrender weeks of gains in a single session. At the same time, lawmakers are moving to enclose prediction markets within insider-trading frameworks, sovereign actors are weaponizing sanctions over stablecoin flows, and legacy gold accounting is being questioned just as on-chain wrapped-bullion products gain share. The through-line is enforcement and deleveraging arriving together — a combination that tends to favor disciplined balance sheets over momentum exposure heading into the next macro window.