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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted South Dakota investor Benjamin Paul Wiener on 29 counts related to an alleged $20 million cryptocurrency investment fraud, Cointelegraph reported. The charges include wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors allege that Wiener, through his company, solicited cash and crypto from investors by promising false returns. He is accused of operating a Ponzi scheme, using new investor funds to pay earlier ones, spending the money for personal use, and laundering some of it through cryptocurrency exchanges. The scheme reportedly victimized dozens of people in South Dakota and Minnesota. If convicted, Wiener faces up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud and up to 20 years for both wire fraud and money laundering.

According to Cointelegraph, a total of 144,470 BTC has been moved over the past year from Bitcoin wallets that had been dormant for more than seven years. Such large-scale transfers from long-inactive wallets are often interpreted as movements by early investors or long-term holders, though it has not been confirmed whether these transfers resulted in actual sales.

An Argentine federal judge, Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, has frozen 25 cryptocurrency accounts related to the Libra (LIBRA) memecoin case. The judge also ordered Binance, Bybit, OKX, CoinEx, FixedFloat, and Bitfinex to submit account holders' KYC data, IP records, associated bank accounts, and complete transaction histories. Federal police stated they had identified funds originating from the "Team Libra Wallet" that moved through multiple blockchains and centralized exchanges. They noted that some transactions were structured to make the funds difficult to trace. The investigation is connected to an incident in which Argentine President Javier Milei promoted the LIBRA token on X in February 2025.

Bitcoin is having difficulty reclaiming the $70,000 level despite a recent rebound, facing simultaneous selling from both long-term (LTH) and short-term holders (STH), according to an analysis by CryptoSlate. A key resistance zone is seen between $70,000 and $80,000, where approximately $4.5 billion in call option open interest is concentrated. Data from Glassnode shows that long-term holders realizing losses have accounted for over 65% of recent exchange inflows. At the same time, short-term holders who bought near the June lows are taking profits, which is limiting upward pressure. However, there are also signs of recovering demand. U.S. spot BTC ETFs have recorded net inflows for three consecutive days, and CryptoQuant's Bitcoin Regime Score remains in positive territory. The analysis concluded that for Bitcoin to break through $70,000, sustained buying from spot markets and ETFs will be needed to absorb the sell-offs from current holders.

Xie Zaiyin, head of Greater China for global crypto exchange Bitget, announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the platform's real-world asset (RWA) tokenization product, rToken, has recorded a cumulative trading volume of $2.17 billion six weeks after its launch. The average daily trading volume over the past week was approximately $80 million, with current total assets under management (AUM) at $103 million.

Bitcoin Japan (formerly Hota Marusho), a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has announced it raised approximately 9.657 billion yen ($60.3 million) through the issuance of convertible bonds and new share warrants. Of this amount, the company plans to allocate about 662 million yen ($4.1 million), or roughly 7% of the proceeds, to purchase Bitcoin for its corporate portfolio. The move represents the company's first actual BTC acquisition since its rebranding to Bitcoin Japan.

A large long straddle trade has been detected in the Ethereum (ETH) options market, betting on a sharp price movement, CoinDesk reported. The transaction involved the purchase of 7,500 call options and 7,500 put options—totaling 15,000 contracts—with a strike price of $1,875 and an expiration date of July 24. The notional value of the trade is approximately $28 million. This strategy is designed to profit from volatility itself, rather than a specific price direction, and will be profitable if the price of ETH moves significantly either up or down by expiration. The trader paid a premium of $852,000 to establish the position.

According to data from Coinglass, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has recorded a negative premium for 60 consecutive days since May 19, setting a new record. The most recent reading for the index is -0.0908%. This surpasses the previous record of 40 consecutive days of negative premium, which was set between Jan. 16 and Feb. 24 of this year. A sustained negative premium is often associated with outflows of U.S. institutional capital, suggesting potential short-term downward pressure on prices.

Leonidas, co-founder of the Bitcoin protocol Runestone, has announced an open-source client called 'DOG Mode' designed to bypass the proposed 'BIP 110' regulation, which seeks to limit non-financial data transfers on the network. 'DOG Mode' significantly raises the maximum weight unit for a standard transaction to 3.9 million, approaching the full block capacity. It also lowers the minimum transferable transaction unit, or dust limit, to one satoshi, a move intended to activate an estimated $25 million in dormant funds. Unlike the BIP 110 proposal, which requires the consent of 55% of miners, 'DOG Mode' only necessitates a change in node relay rules, bypassing the need for a formal vote or consensus. Leonidas urged developers and miners to adopt the client, stating that transactions will be approved if a sufficient number of nodes and miners accept the new rules.

The probability of the CLARITY Act being signed into law by the end of 2026 has dropped to 35% on the prediction market Polymarket.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $63,000. BTC is trading at $62,987.9 on the Binance USDT market.

GRAM has fallen by 4.18% in the past five minutes on the COINNESS market. Currently, GRAM is trading at $1.42.

A Taiwanese court has sentenced the mastermind behind the fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange BitShine to 22 years in prison, local media reported. The scheme defrauded more than 1,500 victims of 1.27 billion New Taiwan Dollars (TWD), or approximately $39 million. According to prosecutors, the fraudsters colluded with a professional criminal organization. They allegedly converted the stolen funds into cryptocurrencies like Tether (USDT) and then transferred and laundered the money overseas.

Robinhood Chain now ranks second in developer activity among public blockchains, behind only Ethereum. EOS, Polygon, and BNB Chain rank third through fifth, respectively.

Brain (BRAIN), a new memecoin on the Base chain, reached an all-time high after what appeared to be a show of support from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. The token's market capitalization briefly surpassed $30 million and is currently trading at around $20.14 million, marking a 24-hour increase of over 3,800%. The surge in community interest followed Armstrong changing his social media profile picture to an image similar to the Brain icon. The token, which adopts the new B20 standard introduced in a recent Base upgrade, currently has approximately 8,850 holders, with the top 10 wallets holding 12.68% of the supply.

The UK is set to significantly reduce the complex tax burden on cryptocurrency lending and deposits into decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity pools starting in April 2027. The UK's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced it will introduce a "no gain, no loss" tax deferral for these transactions, meaning taxes will not be levied until the assets are fully disposed of. Previously, the mere act of lending or depositing assets, which often involves swapping them for different tokens, could trigger a capital gains tax of up to 24%, a major point of contention for investors. The measure is expected to benefit approximately 700,000 cryptocurrency users. Under the new rules, if an investor withdraws the same quantity of assets they initially deposited, the transaction will not be subject to tax. However, any additional income generated during the deposit, such as interest or other gains, will remain taxable. HMRC explained the change, stating that it is fairer to tax investors when they actually liquidate their assets.

Multicoin Capital has invested $1.75 million in Trasia Labs. Trasia Labs is a perpetual futures trading platform built on the Hyperliquid layer, aimed at traders in Asia. The investment marks Multicoin Capital's first in a project within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

An anonymous Ethereum whale has withdrawn a total of 50,000 ETH, worth approximately $95.40 million, from Coinbase Prime over the past two days, according to Onchain Lens. The whale first moved 30,000 ETH (about $57.66 million) to three new wallets on July 16, followed by an additional withdrawal of 20,000 ETH (about $37.70 million) today.

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $28 million on July 16, marking a flip to net outflows, according to data from Farside Investors. - Fidelity (FETH): -$11.2 million - Bitwise (ETHW): +$2.3 million - BlackRock (ETHE): -$4.8 million - Grayscale's mini ETH: -$14.3 million

U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a net inflow of $79.1 million on July 16, marking the third consecutive day of inflows, according to data from Farside Investors. - BlackRock's IBIT: +$33.4 million - Fidelity's FBTC: +$30.7 million - Bitwise's BITB: +$15 million

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - BTC: $69.91 million liquidated (77.92% longs) - ETH: $81.35 million liquidated (83.88% longs) - SPCX: $20.61 million liquidated (97.22% longs)

An address suspected to belong to a16z has deposited 471,500 HYPE, worth $30.57 million, to exchanges including OKX, Bybit, and Gate.io, EmberCN reported. Such deposits are typically interpreted as a precursor to selling. This activity follows on-chain data from last month that suggested a16z was accumulating HYPE, while signs of selling, including exchange deposits, have emerged since the beginning of this month.

CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index has risen two points from the previous day to 49. The index is calculated by comparing the price performance of the top 100 coins by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and wrapped coins, against that of Bitcoin over the last 90 days. An altcoin season is declared when 75% of these top coins outperform Bitcoin over that period; the opposite is considered a Bitcoin season. A score closer to 100 indicates an altcoin season.

The Russian government's final draft of a cryptocurrency regulation bill includes a provision to restrict retail investors from buying foreign stablecoins, Vitsmedia reported. This marks a change from a previous version of the bill, which treated stablecoins like other cryptocurrencies and allowed qualified investors to trade them. The final draft reclassifies them as a separate regulatory category. According to the bill, foreign digital financial products can, in principle, only be purchased by professional investors. Retail investors will be limited to specific products designated by the Central Bank of Russia. Meanwhile, the central bank has also proposed regulations to place all stablecoin transactions under state supervision, permitting them only through exchanges or licensed crypto exchange offices.

Quantum-resistance firm Project Eleven has proposed a new technology to prove ownership of a Bitcoin wallet even if quantum computers render existing digital signatures obsolete, Decrypt reported. The method uses a wallet's key derivation path to demonstrate possession of a higher-level key without exposing the private key itself. The company explained that this is possible because the original key or seed phrase used to create a wallet cannot be replicated. However, the technology is still in its early stages and would require support at the Bitcoin protocol level for implementation. The proposal comes as the cryptocurrency industry has begun to address the growing number of research reports highlighting the potential security threats posed by quantum computing.