Kraken Launches US Perps, Standard Chartered Calls Crypto Winter Over, Bitcoin Near $67K

Crypto News

The crypto industry’s most prominent founders, executives, and investors have jointly urged Senate leaders to preserve the developer protections embedded in the Clarity Act, which recently advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support. At the center of the debate sits the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a provision establishing that anyone who writes open-source software, runs a node, or validates transactions without taking custody of funds is not a federal money transmitter. Advocates warn that gutting the clause would push builders offshore and erode American competitiveness. The provision survived a hostile amendment during markup, and supporters insist it must remain intact through the full Senate floor vote.

Kraken began offering CFTC-regulated perpetual futures to United States customers through its Kraken Pro platform, marking a notable shift as crypto derivatives migrate onshore. The contracts list on Bitnomial, the regulated exchange acquired this year by parent company Payward, and initially cover major assets including bitcoin, ether, and solana, with additional altcoin contracts planned. Perpetual futures let traders hold leveraged long or short positions indefinitely without owning the underlying asset. The product dominates global crypto trading, with annual volume surpassing $60 trillion in 2025, though most activity has historically occurred offshore. The launch follows recent CFTC guidance clearing regulated venues to list perps, after the agency approved similar contracts in May.

Eric Trump dismissed viral screenshots purporting to show him messaging UFC analyst Daniel Cormier about whether White House fights were rigged, calling the images AI-generated fabrications. The alleged exchange surfaced around UFC Freedom 250, staged on the White House South Lawn on June 14 to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary. Cormier posted the messages, deleted them within minutes, then questioned the resulting uproar. Neither side produced platform data, leaving authenticity unresolved. The episode underscores how AI deepfakes increasingly blur online truth; deepfake-related crypto scams alone drove more than $200 million in losses during the first quarter of 2025, a figure that has intensified scrutiny of synthetic media across the industry.

A senior digital assets strategist at Standard Chartered declared the crypto winter over, arguing the market already printed its cycle low when bitcoin touched $59,000 on June 5, a 53% retreat from October 2025’s $126,000 record. The call rests on easing macro pressure and the conclusion of ETF selling tied to the SpaceX listing. Supporting signals include funding rates near negative 3.9%, indicating capitulation, and collapsed open interest only now turning higher. The Fear and Greed Index reading near 20 reflects extreme pessimism, a level that historically clusters near market bottoms. Bitcoin has since recovered to roughly $66,000, lending weight to the bullish reversal thesis.

The same Standard Chartered research projects that assets locked in decentralized finance could grow 37-fold to $2.7 trillion by the end of 2030, propelled by tokenized real-world assets and crypto-native value moving onchain. Currently only about 3% of stablecoins and roughly 10% of tokenized real-world assets circulate within DeFi protocols, a share the bank expects to climb toward 30% by 2030. The forecast reflects mounting institutional conviction that tokenization will channel fresh capital onchain, though analysts caution that fragmenting an asset across multiple chains can splinter liquidity. Uniswap was highlighted as a potential hub given its scale and durability across cycles.

Dutch Blockchain Week 2026 released the full agenda for its flagship summit, running June 22 through 28 in Amsterdam, with the main two-day program at the Johan Cruijff ArenA on June 24 and 25. The lineup reflects the industry’s institutional maturation, featuring Litecoin founder Charlie Lee alongside executives from Visa, Mastercard, Kraken, Bitwise, Fireblocks, Chainlink, Ripple, Deloitte, and PwC. Sessions span stablecoins, tokenization, custody, payments, and European regulation as the region settles into the MiCA framework. Bitvavo returns as main partner while Ripple joins as gold partner. More than 40 side events are scheduled across the city throughout the week.

These developments trace a single arc: capital and credibility are consolidating around regulated, institutional crypto infrastructure even amid fragile sentiment. COINOTAG’s aggregate market data frames the tension precisely — the Fear and Greed Index sits at 20, deep in extreme fear, while bitcoin dominance has climbed to 69.8% and total crypto market capitalization stands near $1.91 trillion, signaling defensive rotation into bitcoin. Regulatory clarity in Washington, onshore derivatives, and tokenization forecasts all point toward a maturing market, yet our data shows liquidity remains concentrated and risk appetite subdued. The primary-source signals — official filings, exchange announcements, and on-chain positioning — suggest structural progress is currently outpacing the market’s emotional recovery.