Bitcoin news

On 24 June 2026, Binance withdrew its MiCA licence application filed in Greece and told European customers it will stop providing digital asset services from 1 July 2026. Without authorisation in an EU member state before the 30 June deadline, the exchange loses access to the 27-country single market and says it plans to file a new application in France.

The EU's MiCA regulation, adopted in 2023 and applicable to crypto-asset service providers since late 2024, rests on a simple principle: a licence obtained in one member state serves as a passport for the whole Union. National transition periods ended on 30 June 2026, turning that date into a cliff edge for platforms still without authorisation, including the world's largest crypto exchange.

For Binance's European users, the consequence is concrete: no more buying, selling or trading on the platform, even though access to funds for withdrawal remains the minimum obligation. The episode illustrates a recurring lesson: bitcoins kept on an exchange depend on that exchange's regulatory situation, unlike those held in self-custody, in a wallet whose keys you control.

Worth following: the fate of the new licence application announced in France, how long customers will be able to retrieve their assets, and the redistribution of the European market toward platforms already holding a MiCA licence.

On 22 June 2026, the US Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by 85 votes to 5. The bill prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) through the end of 2030. Private dollar-backed stablecoins are left outside the scope of the ban.

Central bank digital currencies have been debated for years in the United States: supporters see them as a tool to modernise payments, opponents as a risk of transaction surveillance and direct competition with commercial banks. The provision just adopted, inserted into a housing bill, settles that debate for several years by closing the door on any public digital dollar.

The choice charts a distinctive American path: leaving digital monetary innovation to the private sector, through dollar stablecoins now framed by federal law, rather than to the central bank. It contrasts with the euro area, where the ECB is pressing ahead with its digital euro project. For bitcoin, often presented as the decentralised alternative to state digital currencies, a landscape without a US CBDC reinforces its positioning.

Worth watching: the completion of the bill's legislative journey, how the Federal Reserve adjusts its research work, and the growth of regulated stablecoins occupying the space left open.

On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate in the 3.50% to 3.75% range, at the first meeting chaired by Kevin Warsh. The dot plot shows that nearly all policymakers expect rates to stay flat or rise by year-end. Bitcoin's reaction was muted, trading around 63,000 dollars.

Why does the bitcoin market watch the Fed so closely? Because the level of interest rates sets the cost of money and the appetite for so-called risk assets. High rates make risk-free investments more attractive and drain available liquidity; falling rates do the opposite. Historically, bitcoin's major bull phases have often coincided with periods of accommodative monetary policy.

The message from this meeting therefore leans against the wind: without the prospect of quick rate cuts, non-yielding assets like bitcoin lose a relative argument in the short term. The muted price reaction suggests, however, that this scenario was already broadly priced in by a market that is also driven by its own dynamics, from ETF flows to the supply cycle.

Worth watching: US inflation figures over the coming months, the new Fed chair's tone at the next meetings, and the evolution of the dot plot, which will signal the expected direction of rates for 2027.

Botanix Labs announced on June 10, 2026 that it is winding down its Bitcoin Layer 2 network focused on decentralized finance, citing weak adoption and insufficient revenue. Users are urged to withdraw their funds before July 9, after which they will become unrecoverable. The project notes that Bitcoin is still seen mainly as a reserve asset rather than a platform for applications.

Second-layer networks aim to extend Bitcoin's capabilities without changing its base protocol: the Lightning Network for instant payments, and parallel chains like Botanix for programmable financial applications. In recent years, several projects have tried to bring to Bitcoin the decentralized finance born on other chains, with limited commercial success.

The episode is a reminder of an essential rule of caution: bitcoins deposited on a second-layer network or a bridge depend on that project's survival, unlike bitcoins held on the main chain. The July 9 deadline is unusual and harsh in that regard: after it passes, unwithdrawn funds will be permanently lost.

Worth following: the orderly processing of withdrawals until July 9, likely consolidation among other second-layer networks, and the underlying debate, still open, between Bitcoin as a reserve asset and Bitcoin as an application platform.

The Bank of Russia confirmed in early June that, from July 1, 2026, non-qualified retail investors will only be allowed to buy three crypto assets: Bitcoin, Ether and the stablecoin USDT. An annual cap of about 300,000 rubles will apply to purchases made through brokers, along with a mandatory risk-awareness test. The measure is part of Russia's new law on digital currency.

Russia's stance on cryptocurrencies has long swung between hostility and pragmatism: crypto payments have been banned domestically since 2021, while mining was legalised in 2024 and the use of digital assets in foreign trade has been increasingly tolerated amid international sanctions. The new framework organises retail access through regulated intermediaries for the first time.

The regime is tightly drawn: a closed list of three assets, an annual investment cap and a prior test, where most major jurisdictions settle for risk warnings. The choice of authorised assets is itself a signal: Bitcoin and Ether for their track record and liquidity, USDT for its role in dollar-denominated international flows.

Worth watching: how the regime is applied in practice from July 1, the real appetite of Russian brokers for this constrained market, and any future broadening of the list of assets available to retail investors.

On June 9, 2026, FIFA announced that the exchange Kraken will be the official crypto exchange supporter of the 2026 World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The deal spans the tournament's sixteen host cities, with the competition starting on June 11. It reflects the growing interest of mainstream sport in digital asset firms.

Sports sponsorship by crypto companies is nothing new: the 2021 wave saw brands appear on arenas, football shirts and Formula 1 cars. The collapse of several players in 2022, FTX first among them, then cooled rights holders. The return of top-tier deals, with the most watched sporting event in the world, marks a new stage of normalisation.

For the ecosystem, the stakes go beyond advertising: attaching an exchange to a family-friendly, planet-wide event plants the idea that buying digital assets is an ordinary activity. A cool head remains necessary, though: a sports partnership is a visibility contract, not a proof of financial soundness nor a recommendation to use the platform.

Worth following during the tournament: the concrete activations planned in the host cities, any effect on account openings in North America, and whether other major platforms respond with comparable deals.

In early June 2026, bitcoin briefly fell below 60,000 dollars, its lowest level since February. It is now trading around 62,000 to 63,000 dollars, close to 50 percent under the record of roughly 128,000 dollars reached in October 2025. Commentators point to rising US Treasury yields and caution ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting.

A halving of the price can be striking, but it is nothing new in Bitcoin's history: corrections of 50 percent or more followed each of the major peaks, in 2013, 2018 and 2022, before new records were set years later. Volatility is the price of a market that is still young, global and traded around the clock, with no circuit breakers.

On the network side, nothing has changed: issuance remains capped at 21 million units, blocks keep being produced roughly every ten minutes, and the computing power securing the chain remains near historic highs. A falling price affects portfolios and sentiment, not the functioning of the protocol.

Worth watching in the coming weeks: the trajectory of US Treasury yields, the Federal Reserve's decisions, and the flows of spot ETFs, whose movements now amplify both rallies and downturns.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs ended a thirteen-day run of net outflows on 5 June 2026, with roughly 4.4 billion dollars pulled since mid-May, the longest such streak since their 2024 launch. Bitcoin traded around 62,000 to 64,000 dollars at the close of the period, following a sharp monthly decline. Assets under management in these funds fell from about 104 billion to 80 billion dollars.

These listed funds, approved in January 2024, let investors buy bitcoin exposure through an ordinary brokerage account. Their mechanics tie flows directly to the market: when investors subscribe, the funds buy bitcoin; when they sell their shares, the funds dispose of it. A thirteen-day outflow streak therefore reflects sustained selling pressure from traditional investors.

The end of a redemption streak does not mechanically signal a turnaround: it only means the outflows stopped on a given day. The drop in assets, from about 104 to 80 billion dollars, combines two effects that should be kept apart: the withdrawals themselves and the fall in the value of the bitcoins still held in the funds.

Worth watching: the trend of flows in the following weeks, how the movements are distributed among the large funds, and the growing role of these products in price formation, on the way up as on the way down.

On 2 June 2026, the SEC published its draft strategic plan for fiscal years 2026 to 2030, placing digital assets at the heart of its priorities. The document aims for a rational and consistent regulatory framework for blockchain and crypto assets, and plans to clarify the division of responsibilities with the CFTC. The draft is open for public comment until 2 July 2026.

The strategic plan is the multi-year steering document of the US markets regulator: it sets the course of its action, resources and rules for five years. Making digital assets a priority confirms a change of era: for years, the SEC mostly approached the sector through enforcement, piling up proceedings against platforms rather than issuing clear rules.

For the industry, the significance is symbolic but real: a regulator committing to a rational and consistent framework and to a clear split with the CFTC is preparing the legal ground on which ETFs, platforms and issuers will operate for the decade. A plan is not a rule, though: every concrete measure will have to follow its own process.

Worth following: the comments filed until 2 July, the final version of the plan, and its translation into concrete rule proposals, in parallel with the work of Congress on market structure.

On 3 June 2026, the SEC granted accelerated approval for the Nasdaq listing of the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, an actively managed fund. It holds bitcoin, shares of the IBIT ETF and cash, and writes call options to generate premium income. It adds to the range of exchange-listed Bitcoin products in the United States.

The covered call strategy is a staple of equity markets, transposed here to bitcoin: the fund collects premiums by selling call options on its positions. In exchange for that regular income, it gives up part of the upside if the price rises beyond the strike of the options sold. The product therefore targets investors seeking periodic income rather than full exposure to bitcoin's potential.

The trade-off deserves to be understood before buying: premium income offers only marginal protection against a falling price, and participation in rallies is capped. For BlackRock, the launch extends a lineup built around IBIT, now the reference among spot Bitcoin ETFs, toward products with differentiated risk profiles.

Worth following: the income actually distributed over the months, the product's fees against expected competition, and the market's appetite for these option-based strategies applied to bitcoin.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) sold about 32 bitcoin for roughly 2.5 million dollars, its first sale since 2022, according to a filing disclosed in early June. The company says it acted to fund distributions tied to its preferred stock and still holds around 843,000 bitcoin. The sale is tiny but marks a break from its continuous accumulation strategy.

Strategy is the emblematic Bitcoin treasury company: since August 2020 it has been accumulating BTC as its main reserve asset, funding purchases through issues of common stock, preferred stock and convertible debt. That financial engineering imposes regular commitments in return, notably the dividends owed to holders of its preferred shares.

Set against the roughly 843,000 bitcoins it keeps, the sale of 32 BTC is anecdotal: less than 0.004 percent of the stack. Its significance lies elsewhere, in the symbol: the company that turned never selling into a slogan is showing that financial obligations can override doctrine. The market reads it as a reminder that leveraged corporate treasuries are not unconditional holders.

Worth following: the company's next regulatory filings, its ability to cover distributions without further disposals, and any knock-on effect on other Bitcoin treasury companies.

In late May 2026, the CFTC for the first time allowed perpetual futures on crypto assets at regulated U.S. venues, through clearances granted to Kalshi and Coinbase. These products, long confined to offshore markets, include contracts tied to bitcoin. For now this rests on no-action letters rather than a formal rule.

The perpetual contract is the most traded derivative in the crypto world: a future with no expiry date, kept aligned with the spot price through a periodic funding mechanism between buyers and sellers. Born on offshore platforms in the mid-2010s, it has since concentrated most speculative volume on bitcoin, sometimes with very high leverage.

Bringing these products into the regulated US perimeter changes the picture: institutions can access them without going through exotic jurisdictions, with clearing and position oversight. It also brings under American law an instrument known for amplifying price moves, whose leverage remains risky for retail traders.

Worth following: whether these no-action letters are turned into a formal rule, the arrival of other platforms in this segment, and how much volume regulated perpetuals manage to pull away from offshore venues.