Arthur Hayes has flipped his stance on $HYPE. Four days after exiting his position when the token traded around $72, he has returned to the market, buying 33,978 $HYPE for about $2.09 million at roughly $56, according to Lookonchain. The re-entry came after an estimated 23% pullback from his sell level.

Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge said the company has completed a whitehat operation to safeguard dozens of NFTs that were at risk following the discovery of an exploit in Flooring Protocol. Figge said the assets protected include Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, CryptoPunks, and Azuki.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) derivatives saw a sharp bout of volatility that erased more than $382,000 in futures positions in a single day, with losses concentrated on long traders. Liquidation data shows $365,660 in bullish bets were wiped out versus $17,320 on the short side. The wave of forced liquidations arrived as a previously inactive SHIB wallet resurfaced after roughly 10 months. Arkham Intelligence data indicates the address first ran a small test transaction involving a 10 million SHIB MetaMask swap, then routed almost 400 billion SHIB through BitGo's Forwarder Smart Contract in three transfers of about 112 billion, nearly 190 billion, and roughly 99 billion SHIB. Following the moves, the wallet was effectively emptied, holding only 110 SHIB. Total transferred: 399,989,999,938 SHIB. The address had been dormant since around last August. The intent behind the BitGo-linked transfers remains uncertain. BitGo is commonly used by institutional players for OTC execution or to consolidate holdings into cold storage, activity that does not necessarily translate into immediate sell pressure on public exchanges. Even so, the timing drew attention, given the broader market weakness. SHIB is down about 16% over the past week and has fallen below the psychological $0.000005 level. It last traded around $0.000004535, off roughly 3.5% in the past 24 hours. The pullback has pushed the memecoin toward the lower end of the top 30 by market value; SHIB ranks 29th with an estimated market cap of about $2.65 billion.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is warning that Hyperliquid's breakout run in perpetual futures may be entering a tougher phase, with traditional finance and major centralized exchanges increasingly positioned to challenge its lead. Hyperliquid emerged in 2023 and rapidly became a favored venue for trading perpetuals tied to less liquid markets and real-world assets (RWAs). Its token, HYPE, pushed to new all-time highs last week as the protocol recycled trading-fee revenue into token buybacks and subsequent burns to tighten supply. In an interview with Decrypt, Hayes argued the approach is vulnerable because it ultimately relies on fee generation. "At the end of the day, this is a cash story," he said, adding that any sharp loss of market share would weaken the buyback mechanism that has helped support HYPE's price. Key data and timeline - Hyperliquid broadened its RWA perpetuals offering in an October upgrade, adding contracts including gold and silver. - The platform says outstanding positions tied to those markets have reached $3 billion. - Hyperliquid has bought back about 26.6 million HYPE and permanently removed 579,603 HYPE from circulation. At current prices, the buyback total equates to roughly $1.56 billion. - HYPE traded around $59 on Sunday, down about 14% over seven days after topping $75 for an all-time high last week, according to CoinGecko. Hayes has been among the most visible commentators on Hyperliquid's ascent, previously crediting it for enabling weekend price discovery in markets such as oil. His view on competition is less forgiving. He expects incumbent centralized exchanges and TradFi venues to introduce rival perpetual swap products, arguing they will be "forced to launch a competing product" and forecasting that "decently liquid" TradFi perps could arrive as soon as next year. Why perpetuals matter Perpetual futures, or "perps," allow traders to maintain positions indefinitely by paying or receiving periodic funding, rather than trading contracts with fixed expiries. Hayes' BitMEX helped popularize the modern perpetual contract in 2016, though the concept of continuing contracts stretches back decades. Hyperliquid's advantage has been its ability to list perps on thinner, real-world markets—often most active over weekends—and convert that flow into a buyback-and-burn loop. A sudden reversal: Hayes sells One day after the Decrypt interview, Hayes posted on X that he had "just dumped" his HYPE holdings, along with another token. He pointed to macro and market factors—rising energy costs, a wave of IPOs that drains liquidity, and a shift in President Trump's stance on AI—as reasons for taking profits. The sale came less than two months after Hayes published an essay projecting HYPE would reach $150 by August 2026, a sharp reversal that sparked mixed reactions in the community. What's at stake Hayes' core point is that Hyperliquid's scarcity strategy depends on consistent fee inflows. If liquidity shifts to centralized exchanges or TradFi platforms offering comparable perpetual products backed by deeper capital, Hyperliquid's buyback engine could slow—leaving HYPE more exposed to downside pressure. Hyperliquid's RWA expansion and buyback totals remain notable, but Hayes' warning highlights a tightening contest between fast-moving DeFi builders and legacy financial players for control of the derivatives market.

The UK High Court held a procedural hearing on June 5 (local time) on the proposed disposal of assets linked to the Qian Zhimin case, Caixin reported. About 16,000 Chinese victims have registered via several UK law firms to join a civil recovery process under the UK's Proceeds of Crime Act, representing under 13% of the roughly 128,000 victims in the Lan Tian Ge Rui case. The hearing centered on how participating firms should apportion shared litigation costs. Lead firm Fieldfisher told the court it has already incurred about £190,000 in expenses. The judge ordered each firm to pay costs into a court account in proportion to the number of victims it represents, with payment due by 4:00 p.m. on June 26.

Huoxing Finance reported that a New York Supreme Court judge has paused all activity in a lawsuit seeking a declaration of ownership over 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets, preventing any move for a default judgment ahead of a July 14 hearing. Justice Kathy J. King signed an "Order to Show Cause," which was publicly entered on the case docket on June 5. Court records show oral arguments are set for July 14 at 10:30 a.m. in Courtroom 6 of the New York court. The order directs that, before the hearing, "all further proceedings on the plaintiff's request for declaratory judgment shall be stayed, including any applications for discovery or default judgment." King also struck the phrase "and final determination" from the standard form language, signaling the stay runs only through the July 14 hearing rather than until a final ruling. In a separate decision filed the same day, King found that an earlier request for injunctive relief was moot, citing the plaintiff's Amended Complaint filed on May 1 and another docket entry.

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr is cautioning against celebrating looser banking rules, arguing that today's rollbacks could be laying the groundwork for the next major shock. Speaking at American University on June 6 in remarks titled "Deregulating in a Financial Boom: What Could Go Wrong?", Barr said recent moves to ease requirements on bank capital, supervision and liquidity are accumulating risks that may not be obvious in the near term but could ultimately hit the broader economy. He called the current push potentially the biggest pullback in bank regulation since reforms put in place after the Global Financial Crisis. Barr said vulnerabilities created by deregulation often remain hidden during good times, warning that they "may not be apparent today…" yet could still "threaten serious harm to the economy." He drew comparisons to the deregulatory backdrops that preceded both the Great Depression and the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis, noting that rules were loosened during expansions, when banks looked strong and the case for lighter oversight was easiest to sell. His concerns focus on three core elements of the post-GFC framework: capital requirements, which act as buffers to absorb losses; supervisory oversight, the day-to-day scrutiny of bank operations and risk management; and liquidity rules designed to ensure banks can meet short-term obligations without being forced into fire sales. Barr has delivered similar warnings before. In a July 16, 2025 speech, he argued that deregulation during economic expansions can be especially risky. He also dissented in 2025 on efforts to relax bank capital rules, publicly opposing the direction the Fed was moving. He pointed to the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999 as a historical example. The law repealed key Depression-era separations during what was then the longest economic expansion in U.S. history; less than a decade later, the financial system was on the brink. Barr did not mention crypto assets or digital tokens. Still, the 2023 regional banking crisis offered a market template: when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed, investors moved toward Bitcoin and other decentralized assets. For traditional finance investors, Barr's warning underscores a monitoring point—bank equities and debt tied to institutions operating with thinner capital cushions. With less disclosure, less oversight and less capital, investors have less visibility into the true level of risk.

On-chain analytics firm Lookonchain (@lookonchain) reported that wallet pensionusdt.eth is keeping a bearish outlook despite the market's early rebound. About nine hours ago, the address added 10,000 ETH to its short position, worth roughly $16.8 million. Total shorts now stand at 60,000 ETH, valued at approximately $101 million.

Bitcoin (BTC) held near unchanged levels despite a new round of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel. The cryptocurrency rose about 2.4% over the past 24 hours as geopolitical risks increased. Oil prices jumped as traders priced in the possibility that the conflict could broaden across the region.