Bitcoin Price Drops Below $104,000
On June 12, amid news of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian territory, BTC and ETH quotes went into the negative. The escalation of geopolitical tensions provoked an outflow of investors from risky assets. Over the past 24 hours, BTC has fallen by 3.6%, falling below $104,000. According to data at the time of publication, the first cryptocurrency is trading at $104,954.
Circle Issues USDC on XRP Ledger Network
Ripple and USDC issuer Circle have announced a strategic partnership to integrate the stablecoin into the XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain. According to the parties, the collaboration is aimed at expanding XRPL's capabilities, increasing liquidity on the network, and spurring innovation. USDC is planned to be used on the platform for cross-border remittances, money transfers, and DeFi transactions.
Ripple also intends to add USDC support to its flagship Ripple Payments solution, along with RLUSD, the company's own stablecoin. The service has already processed over $70 billion in payments across more than 90 currency jurisdictions. According to CoinGecko, USDC has a market cap of $61.4 billion, second only to Tether's USDT ($155.3 billion). RLUSD is valued at $413.5 million.
BTC Mining Difficulty Growth Slows
During the latest recalculation, Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 0.45%, amounting to 126.41 T. The indicator has only slightly retreated from the record level of 129.98 T, recorded two weeks earlier. According to Glassnode, the average daily hashrate (7 DMA) reached 936.4 EH / s, remaining close to the historical maximum recorded on May 31. According to the Hashrate Index, the hash price has hovered around $ 53 per PH / s per day in the last 24 hours.
JPMorgan analysts called the first quarter of 2025 "the most successful" for public mining companies in the entire observation period lasting more than two years. According to CoinDesk, the total gross profit of the sector amounted to about $ 2 billion with a margin of 53%. The lowest total cost of mining one bitcoin was recorded by IREN - about $36,400. The highest figure was shown by MARA - about $72,600.
The Block: Ethereum Is a Severely Undervalued Cryptocurrency
Leading technical experts and Ethereum supporters have stated that the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is significantly undervalued, The Block reports, citing a report for institutional investors. According to their estimates, when compared to commodities like oil, the fair long-term price of ETH could reach $740,000.
The key arguments in favor of growth include the burning of tokens under EIP-1559, which limits the annual increase in emission to 1.51% - lower than most fiat currencies - as well as the growing number of ETH holders.
However, not everyone shares this view. DBA co-founder John Charbonneau, despite his positive attitude towards the project, believes that ETH is overvalued and does not recommend buying it.
The authors of the report admit that, unlike BTC, it is more difficult for institutional investors to objectively assess the intrinsic value of Ethereum.
Sandeep Nailwal Becomes First CEO of Polygon Foundation
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has become the first CEO of the Polygon Foundation and announced a review of the project’s strategic priorities. The foundation will retain control over key structures, including Polygon Labs, where the current leadership will remain unchanged. According to Nailwal, the L2 platform, with a treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars, is ready to cope with the current crisis in the Ethereum ecosystem. According to Nailwal, Ethereum is going through an “existential crisis” that has thrown Polygon back to the state of an early-stage startup.
Hackers Attack Paraguayan President's X-Account
Hackers broke into the X account of Paraguayan President Santiago Peña and published a false statement recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender. The post also claimed that the government had reserved $5 million in BTC for the treasury. The post was later deleted. Journalist Colin Wu denied the information, noting that the crypto wallet indicated in the message only contained $4 and had not received any new transactions after the post, which confirms the fake nature of the message. The presidential office called for all recent publications to be ignored without official confirmation.
