The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly close to approving **exchange-traded funds (ETFs)** linked to the spot price of **Ethereum** (ETH).  This follows the successful launch of **Bitcoin ETFs** earlier this year, which attracted $38 billion in assets.  Discussions between asset managers and regulators are nearing completion, with **minor issues** remaining to be resolved.  The **approval** is expected within a week or two, potentially as early as July 4th.  Eight asset managers, including **BlackRock, VanEck, and Grayscale Investments,** are vying for approval. While the launch of these **Ethereum ETFs** is expected to be a positive development for the crypto market, some analysts predict a **potential price drop** of 30% in Ether due to its smaller market cap and trading volumes compared to Bitcoin.  The SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, has indicated that the **final decision** lies with asset managers to provide full disclosures for the registration statements.  The approval of these ETFs could have significant implications for the **adoption and accessibility** of Ethereum, particularly for institutional investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly on the verge of greenlighting exchange-traded funds linked to the spot price of Ethereum (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/eth/usd">ETH</a>).
What Happened: Discussions between asset managers and regulators are nearing their end and the hotly anticipated investment avenues could go up for listing as soon as July 4, a Reuters report indicated Wednesday.
Executives from two of the firms anonymously revealed that the process of amending the offering documents is down to resolving minor issues. A lawyer associated with one of the issuers stated that approval is likely just a week or two away.
Eight asset managers, including BlackRock, VanEck, and Grayscale Investments which had previously launched spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/btc/usd">BTC</a>) ETFs such as iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/IBIT#NASDAQ">IBIT</a>), VanEck Bitcoin ...<a href=https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/24/06/39516624/ethereum-spot-etfs-on-the-horizon-regulatory-approval-expected-by-fourth-of-july-report alt=Ethereum Spot ETFs On The Horizon: Regulatory Approval Expected By Fourth Of July: Report>Full story available on Benzinga.com</a>

Loading...Loading...The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly on the verge of greenlighting exchange-traded funds linked to the spot price of Ethereum ETH/USD.What Happened: Discussions between asset managers and regulators are nearing their end and the hotly anticipated investment avenues could go up for listing as soon as July 4, a Reuters report indicated Wednesday.Executives from two of the firms anonymously revealed that the process of amending the offering documents is down to resolving minor issues. A lawyer associated with one of the issuers stated that approval is likely just a week or two away.Eight asset managers, including BlackRock, VanEck, and Grayscale Investments which had previously launched spot Bitcoin BTC/USD ETFs such as iShares Bitcoin Trust IBIT, VanEck Bitcoin Trust HODL, and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC, are seeking SEC approval for the funds.See Also: Here’s How Much Profit Donald Trump Would Make If He Sold His TRUMP Memecoin TodayWhy It Matters: The launch of funds tracking the spot price of Bitcoin BTC/USD in January was a massive success, attracting about $8 billion in assets. As of late June, these nine new products have nearly $38 billion in assets. However, some ETF and cryptocurrency analysts believe the launch of the new spot ether ETFs will be less impressive due to ether’s smaller market cap and trading volumes.The latest speculation comes a week after Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas moved up the launch date for the ETFs to July 2. Balchunas had said that there was a “decent chance” the SEC would declare them effective and get it off their plate before the holiday weekend.In a recent interview, SEC Chair Gary Gensler highlighted the smooth progress of ETF filings He indicated that the final decision lies with asset managers to make full disclosures for the registration statements to go into effect.While the enthusiasm was palpable, a few analysts predicted that the launch could potentially lead to a 30% drop in Ether's price. Price Action: At the time of writing, Ether was exchanging hands at $3,377.13, following a 1.06% drop in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock.comRead Next: Congressman Matt Gaetz Introduces Bill To Allow Federal Tax Payments In BitcoinDisclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Ethereum Spot ETFs On The Horizon: Regulatory Approval Expected By Fourth Of July: Report

Ethereum Spot ETFs: Green Light Expected By July 4th

Bitcoin has struggled through 2026, plunging to half its October peak and **sparking fears of an imminent bitcoin collapse**. Now, analysts with JPMorgan have predicted bitcoin miners could be forced to sell more bitcoin, potentially exacerbating the downturn.

## JPMorgan's Bearish Outlook

Bitcoin mining economics have "worsened" this year, the bank’s researchers, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, said in a note. They estimate the current **production cost of bitcoin is about $78,000** per bitcoin—a 25% premium on bitcoin’s $64,000 current price. Publicly traded bitcoin miners sold more than **32,000 bitcoin worth over $2 billion** during Q1 2026 to fund operating expenses, topping their combined sales for all of last year.

“When bitcoin trades below its production cost, higher-cost miners power down, the hashrate declines, and difficulty adjusts lower,” JPMorgan analysts said. This pattern was evident in the second week of June, when difficulty fell 10%.

## Could Miner Capitulation Signal a Bottom?

However, some analysts see a silver lining. Newsletter author Lark Davis notes that if miners aren’t making money, many resort to selling bitcoin to pay the bills. Historically, this **miner capitulation often signals bitcoin’s cycle price bottoms**. While the Puell Multiple hasn’t quite signaled miner capitulation yet, it is showing miner distress, which could mark the beginning of the end of this bear market.

## Market Sentiment Remains Fearful

Bitcoin’s fear and greed index has been stuck in the **“extreme fear” zone** for months. Koinly CEO Robin Singh said, “Bitcoin is holding firm around the $65,000 level, but from here it could easily break in either direction.” The expected passage of the **Clarity Act** could provide a fundamental catalyst to push bitcoin back into the $70,000 range, but any move higher may prove short-lived given the broader bearish market.

![JPMorgan chart](https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/6a37da286251f0d97d70be1e/bitcoin--bitcoin-price--bitcoin-crash--crypto--JPMorgan--chart/960x0.png?format=png&width=960)

Analysts with JPMorgan have predicted bitcoin miners could be forced to sell more bitcoin...

JPMorgan Warns Bitcoin Miners Could Trigger a Price Crash – Here's What You Need to Know

**Strategy’s bitcoin position has swelled to 846,842 BTC** after surviving a dramatic 2022 crypto market downturn that put its balance sheet and stock price under intense pressure. **Michael Saylor** said the company raised over $60 billion, added 716,000 BTC, and now holds reserves exceeding debt by about $48 billion.

## Key Takeaways
- Strategy emerged from crypto winter with sharply larger bitcoin reserves and renewed investor attention.
- Capital raises helped fund more than 716,000 BTC in additional corporate holdings.
- Saylor now frames bitcoin as digital capital supporting future financial infrastructure.

## From Bear Market Brink to Bitcoin Empire: Strategy’s 716,000 BTC Expansion Since 2022

On June 20, Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) Executive Chairman **Michael Saylor** revisited a speech delivered in 2022, highlighting how sharply market conditions deteriorated after that presentation. Conditions worsened significantly in the months that followed.

As **bitcoin sank below $16,000** and confidence across the crypto sector evaporated, Strategy found itself staring down one of the most difficult moments in its history. The company’s balance sheet came under intense scrutiny as the value of its bitcoin holdings plunged, MSTR shares tumbled into the $13 range, and critics questioned whether its aggressive bitcoin strategy could survive the prolonged market downturn.

> “When I gave this speech in October 2022, bitcoin traded near $20,000, Strategy held 130,000 BTC worth about $2.6 billion, and $MSTR was ~$24 split-adjusted,” Saylor reflected, adding: “Weeks later, after bitcoin fell below $16,000, our debt exceeded the combined value of our BTC and cash reserves by ~$300 million, and $MSTR fell into the $13 range by year-end.”

At the time of the October 2022 speech, the company was still operating under the name MicroStrategy, and its bitcoin accumulation strategy was already well underway. After beginning purchases in August 2020, MicroStrategy expanded its holdings through cash reserves, debt financing, and equity offerings. By October 2022, it had accumulated 130,000 BTC, making it the largest corporate bitcoin holder.

The company’s dashboard as of this writing shows **holdings of 846,842 BTC**, with BTC reserves valued at $53.83 billion. The dashboard lists $1.1 billion in U.S. dollar reserves, $6.75 billion in debt, and preferred equity of $15.48 billion, while MSTR traded at $112.53 with a market capitalization of $40.1 billion.

## The Comeback: From Bitcoin Winter to a $48 Billion Turnaround

Capital formation became a central element of the company’s subsequent expansion. **Saylor stated that Strategy raised more than $60 billion** of additional capital after the 2022 downturn and deployed those funds into further bitcoin acquisitions as part of its long-term corporate strategy.

Since the depths of the 2022 crypto winter, Strategy has amassed more than 716,000 BTC and dramatically expanded its bitcoin treasury. According to Saylor, the company has gone from a period when debt exceeded the value of its BTC and cash reserves to one where its bitcoin and U.S. dollar reserves surpass debt by roughly $48 billion.

> “We stayed focused, strengthened the company, and executed our strategy. Since then, Strategy has raised over $60 billion of additional capital and invested it in bitcoin, adding more than 716,000 BTC,” Saylor said, noting: “Today, our BTC and USD reserves exceed debt by ~$48 billion. Thank you to everyone who believed, endured, and took the long view.”

Beyond Strategy’s accumulation strategy, Saylor has recently expanded his public thesis on bitcoin’s role in global finance. He described bitcoin as **Digital Capital** and outlined a five-layer framework consisting of Digital Capital, Digital Credit, Digital Money, Digital Yield, and Digital Equity, arguing that financial products can be built around BTC without altering Bitcoin’s base protocol.

Saylor has also identified four competing Bitcoin ideologies—Bitcoin Maximalists, Bitcoin Capitalists, Bitcoin Technologists, and Bitcoin Fundamentalists. He characterized the groups as representing different priorities across monetary policy, adoption, technical development, and network governance, while maintaining that much of Bitcoin’s future growth will occur through financial and technological layers built on top of the network.

Strategy’s bitcoin position has swelled to 846,842 BTC after surviving a dramatic 2022 crypto market downturn that put its balance sheet and stock price

From Brink of Collapse to $48 Billion Surplus: Michael Saylor Reflects on Strategy's Bitcoin Comeback

The release of **Mythos**, an AI system designed to autonomously discover vulnerabilities in code, may do more than help blockchain developers find bugs. As **AI-powered security tools** become cheaper, faster and more widely available, researchers said they could reshape what the crypto industry considers reasonable due diligence before deploying code, potentially altering expectations for developers and institutions.

For years, smart contract security has been constrained by budgets. Comprehensive audits often are costly, making AI systems like Mythos dramatically cheaper. "It pushes the price of a basic audit toward zero," said **Alexander Urbelis**, chief information security officer at ENS Labs. Work that once required weeks and significant expense could eventually be completed in minutes, allowing projects that previously could not afford professional reviews to obtain fast security assessments.

For years, researchers have relied on automated tools known as **fuzzers** to hunt for software bugs. AI systems take a different approach. "It's a change in degree that could likely cause a change in kind," Urbelis said. "Machines have hunted bugs for years. But now we're talking about a fuzzer that has the capacity to reason."

Rather than simply identifying technical bugs, systems like Mythos could infer what code was intended to do and compare that against what it actually does. In crypto, where smart contract code is public and bug bounties can have big budgets, that capability could significantly expand the industry's ability to identify vulnerabilities before launch.

**David Schwed**, COO of blockchain security firm SVRN and founder of the cybersecurity master's program at Yeshiva University, described the shift as even more significant. "These models now operate the way a human attacker does," Schwed said. "They iterate, they take the next step based on what they're seeing in real time. The older tooling was just complicated deterministic flows."

But Schwed argued the bigger change may not be vulnerability discovery itself. It may be the emergence of **continuous security monitoring**. "The real shift is continuous auditing with suggested remediations at a fraction of the cost, instead of a point-in-time review you can only afford once," he said.

If security reviews become inexpensive and continuous, researchers said the industry's expectations could change alongside them. Urbelis said he believes AI could eventually reshape the **standard of care** around smart contract development. Historically, teams could point to the cost and complexity of audits as a reason certain reviews were not performed. That argument becomes more difficult when sophisticated security analysis is available on demand.

"A clean AI report will be seen as no defense," he said. "A plaintiff may well argue it the other way: the tool existed, it was cheap, and you should have caught it."

The prospect raises broader questions for the industry: if AI-powered security reviews become ubiquitous, will investors expect them before funding projects, and could failing to run AI-assisted audits eventually be viewed as **negligence**?

Despite the technology's promise, neither researcher said he believes AI is poised to replace human auditors. While machines excel at identifying coding flaws, Urbelis said they remain weaker at spotting the economic and incentive-based vulnerabilities that have contributed to some of crypto's largest losses. "The bugs that drain treasuries often turn on intent and adversarial incentives," he said. "Those still need an experienced human in the room."

Schwed offered a similar warning. "'Claude, audit my smart contract, make no mistakes' is not a security program," he said. "If the person running the tool can't evaluate what comes back, you haven't bought security, you've bought a false sense of it."

But whether a system like Mythos could have prevented major hacks, both researchers noted that many of crypto's most costly incidents did not originate from smart contract vulnerabilities. Urbelis pointed to the recent compromise of Drift, which he described as the culmination of a months-long **social engineering campaign** that targeted trusted contributors rather than the protocol's code. "The smart contract did exactly what it was told," he said. "The authority behind the instruction was what was compromised and abused."

Similarly, Schwed cited incidents such as Ronin and Bybit, where compromised keys and manipulated signing processes, rather than software vulnerabilities, played central roles. "No code scanner stops an authorized signer from approving a transaction they can't verify," he said.

That reality suggests AI will not eliminate crypto's security challenges. But the researchers argued it could fundamentally alter one part of the equation: the cost of finding bugs and the expectations surrounding their discovery.

As AI-powered security tools become cheaper, faster and more widely available, researchers said they could reshape what the crypto industry considers reasonable due diligence before deploying code, potentially altering expectations for developers and institutions. 

AI Is Revolutionizing Crypto Security: Cheaper, Faster, and Unavoidable

The long-standing alliance between two giants of the crypto payments segment — **XRP** and **Stellar (XLM)** — has been disrupted, with their synchronized price dynamics now a thing of the past. Since the end of May 2026, the assets have moved in opposite directions: **Stellar records major gains** while **XRP continues to decline**.

## The Battle for RWA

The sharp trend reversal was triggered by an official announcement from the **Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)** about plans to launch asset tokenization — including stocks, ETFs and U.S. Treasuries — on the **Stellar blockchain** in the first half of 2027. Data from RWA.xyz shows why Stellar has taken the lead:

- **Distributed Asset Value**: On Stellar, this figure reached **$2.83 billion** (up 21.62% in 30 days). By comparison, XRPL stands at **$360.32 million** (down 10.83%).
- **30-day RWA transfer volume**: On Stellar, this metric increased by **142.34% to $661.84 million**, while XRPL recorded only **$44.93 million**.
- **RWA investor base**: The number of RWA holders on Stellar rose by **44.75% to 17,803 addresses**, while XRPL has only **122 addresses**.

The market noticed these figures, driving **XLM up about 49.44%** since the end of May, while **XRP fell by 15.78%** over the same period.

![RWA Distribution](https://u.today/sites/default/files/inline-images/stellarxrprwa.jpg)

At the same time, XRPL maintains an advantage in **total stablecoin volume** ($922.42M vs $296.24M) and **30-day stablecoin transfer volume** ($5.11B vs $4.27B).

## What's Happening on the Charts?

The daily timeframe indicators reflect a deep technical gap between the two assets.

On the **XLM chart**, the price explosion at the end of May expanded the Bollinger Bands, broke above the upper band, and reached a peak near **$0.29**. The RSI fell to **57.64** after leaving overbought territory, pointing to market stabilization.

![XRP and XLM Chart](https://u.today/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_4489.png)

The **XRP chart** shows the opposite picture. In early June, the coin broke below the middle Bollinger Band, confirming the dominance of sellers. XRP is trading near **$1.13**, trapped between the middle line at **$1.1739** and the lower Bollinger Band at **$1.0526**. The RSI has fallen to **39.34**, approaching oversold territory.

## Can XRP Repeat XLM's Success?

The current narrowing of the Bollinger Bands on the XRP chart indicates that the asset is accumulating energy before a strong move. Two scenarios:

- **Bullish scenario**: If the price holds above **$1.10** and the lower band at **$1.0526**, it could create a base for a rebound. To repeat Stellar's success, buyers need to restore XRPL's RWA status, break through **$1.1739**, and consolidate above **$1.2953**, opening the way to **$1.45–$1.60**.
- **Bearish scenario**: If buyers fail and capital flows to Stellar, XRP risks dropping from **$1.13** to retest the lower band at **$1.0526**, with possible decline toward **$1.00**.

Stellar rides a $2.8 billion RWA wave while XRP gets stuck at $1.13, but tightening Bollinger Bands put the next breakout scenario in the spotlight.

Ethereum Spot ETFs: Green Light Expected By July 4th

Summary:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is close to approving exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to the spot price of Ethereum (ETH).

The approval is expected within a week or two, potentially as early as July 4th.

Eight asset managers, including BlackRock, VanEck, and Grayscale Investments, are seeking approval for these Ethereum ETFs.

Some analysts predict a potential price drop of 30% in Ether due to its smaller market cap and trading volumes compared to Bitcoin.

The SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, has indicated that the final decision lies with asset managers to provide full disclosures for the registration statements.

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JPMorgan Warns Bitcoin Miners Could Trigger a Price Crash – Here's What You Need to Know

From Brink of Collapse to $48 Billion Surplus: Michael Saylor Reflects on Strategy's Bitcoin Comeback

AI Is Revolutionizing Crypto Security: Cheaper, Faster, and Unavoidable

Stellar (XLM) Soars 49% While XRP Stagnates: RWA Battle Heats Up

Other Latest News

JPMorgan Warns Bitcoin Miners Could Trigger a Price Crash – Here's What You Need to Know

From Brink of Collapse to $48 Billion Surplus: Michael Saylor Reflects on Strategy's Bitcoin Comeback

AI Is Revolutionizing Crypto Security: Cheaper, Faster, and Unavoidable

Stellar (XLM) Soars 49% While XRP Stagnates: RWA Battle Heats Up