Over $1 Billion Liquidated After Bitcoin Tanks on Israel–Iran News

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🚨 BTC tanks on Iran strikes, $1B vanishes

• 💰 New Coinbase card earns bitcoin on every swipe

• 🧬 Yield Basis aims to fix DeFi’s oldest problem

• 🪙 Ripple adds USDC support on XRPL mainnet

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Over $1 Billion in Long Positions Liquidated After Bitcoin Drops Following Reported Israeli Strikes on Iran

Leading digital assets bitcoin and ether both saw sharp declines following Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, with bitcoin falling 4% to under $104,000, and ether seeing a sharper decline of 10% to an intra-day low of $2,468.

This decline triggered significant liquidations in the crypto market, with more than $1.07 billion in long positions wiped out from over 251,000 traders over 24 hours.

Bitcoin and ether accounted for the lion’s share of those liquidations, most of which took place on crypto exchanges Binance and Bybit.

“The war in the Middle East is definitely having an effect on BTC and crypto. If we see a big dump to under 100k on BTC and longs liquidation of over 1B, that is a signal to buy more spot,” noted pseudonymous technical analyst account Logical TA on X, cautioning against derivatives. 

“If you dabble in leverage, you will just get liquidated over and over again from the volatility. Spot is safest.”

Coinbase and Amex Team Up on Bitcoin Card as Exchange Reveals Broad Expansion Plans

Crypto exchange Coinbase officially announced its first branded credit card, the Coinbase One Card, in partnership with payments giant American Express.

Set to launch in the U.S. this fall, the card will be available exclusively to Coinbase One subscription members and offer users the potential to earn between 2% and 4% back in bitcoin on every purchase, depending on the amount of digital assets they hold on the Coinbase platform.

Other benefits include boosted rewards for USDC stablecoin holdings and higher staking rewards on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 network.

The metal card includes an engraving referencing the Bitcoin Genesis Block and the 2008 financial crisis: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” known today as the anti-bank Easter egg.

The credit card was just one of several announcements made during the State of Crypto conference on Thursday. 

Shopify is partnering with Coinbase and Stripe to enable USDC payments on Base for merchants in 34 countries, converting crypto into local fiat at checkout.

Coinbase also revealed it will integrate Base-native decentralized exchanges like Aerodrome into its main app, aiming to simplify access to onchain assets. 

Finally, the company plans to launch perpetual futures contracts for U.S. users, expanding its suite of trading products.

Curve Founder’s New DeFi Project Wants to Eliminate Impermanent Loss With Leveraged Liquidity

Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov’s new project, Yield Basis, is designed to address the persistent challenge of impermanent loss in decentralized finance (DeFi) by leveraging liquidity in a different way.

In a white paper shared to X, Egorov explained that the protocol uses 2x leverage, typically via Curve’s crvUSD stablecoin, to to keep positions closer to market prices and reduce the effects of impermanent loss.

Yield Basis also tokenizes liquidity positions into yield-bearing assets (like ybBTC and ybETH), which can be staked for additional rewards.

The project raised $5 million at a $50 million valuation, with strong investor interest and a token (YB) vesting schedule that includes a six-month cliff followed by two years of linear release. It is currently in a “test-in-production” phase, with audits and testing underway before a full-scale launch.

Ripple Integrates USDC on XRP Ledger

Ripple has integrated Circle’s USDC stablecoin directly onto the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a move that became official on Thursday and makes USDC available natively on the XRPL mainnet.

While XRPL is often associated with Ripple, the network is maintained by a global community of validators and developers. It uses the Federated Consensus Protocol, where validators agree on the validity and order of transactions every three to five seconds.

The USDC integration is expected to boost liquidity on the XRPL and facilitate cross-border payments, remittances, and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

It also aligns with Circle’s efforts to expand USDC’s utility, with its market share now representing around 25% of the total stablecoin market, second to Tether’s USDT which remains the clear leader.

• 🤝 Ripple and the SEC jointly proposed splitting a $125 million penalty, with $50 million going to the regulator and $75 million to Ripple, in a bid to resolve their five-year legal battle following changes in the SEC’s crypto enforcement stance.

• 🧾 SharpLink’s stock plunged over 70% after it registered nearly 59 million shares for potential resale under a $425 million ethereum treasury plan, sparking confusion despite reassurances from Consensys executives that no shares were sold.

• 🏀 Shaquille O’Neal agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a class action alleging he promoted unregistered FTX securities, securing legal immunity and ending one of the first major celebrity cases tied to the exchange’s collapse.

• 💰 Crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano is in talks to lead ProCapBTC, a new public company aiming to raise $750 million via equity and debt through a SPAC merger to acquire bitcoin, though its ties to his other listed entity remain unclear.

• 🕹️ GameStop expanded its zero-coupon convertible note sale from $1.75 billion to $2.25 billion following a 22.5% stock drop, with proceeds potentially supporting bitcoin acquisitions after disclosing it holds 4,710 BTC.

• 🏦 Financial market infrastructure giant DTCC is reportedly exploring its own stablecoin, signaling deeper institutional adoption of blockchain tech for payments and cross-border treasury operations.

• 🏔️ Tether invested $89.2 million to acquire a 33.7% stake in Canadian gold royalty firm Elemental Altus, aiming to back its ecosystem with hard assets like gold and bitcoin while securing an option to raise its holding to nearly 48%.

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