Market on Pause: Tether Winds Down aUSDT, CME Sues CFTC, and Ark Invest Swaps Robinhood for Coinbase
The morning of June 18 finds the crypto market in a sideways movement. Bitcoin (BTC) is consolidating near the $63,943 mark, showing minimal volatility within a 24-hour range of $63,779 – $66,354. Ether (ETH) also shows no clear momentum, trading around $1,735. However, behind the static price charts lies a whole series of events capable of radically changing the industry landscape.
Top-10 and Top-100: Who's Up, Who's Down
Among the market cap leaders, Tron shows the best daily result (+0.94%), while Hyperliquid became the absolute weekly champion (+26.88%). Meanwhile, Tron and BNB show the smallest 24-hour losses (-0.34%). In the top-100, the situation is more contrasting: Ethena gained 7.78% in a day, while SKYAI soared 99.80% over the week. The laggard was Audiera, losing 29.55% in a day and 74.38% over seven days. This is a classic sign of capital rotation: investors are taking profits in overheated assets and shifting into more conservative positions.
Tether Shuts Down aUSDT: Focus on XAUT
Tether has announced the phased shutdown of the Alloy platform and the gold-backed stablecoin aUSDT. The decision comes just two years after launch. The reason is a shift in priorities towards products with higher demand, primarily tokenized gold XAUT. aUSDT allowed users to deposit XAUT as collateral and issue a dollar token without selling gold assets. Now, new positions are unavailable, and users can redeem their funds until September 17. This is already Tether's third closed product: the yuan peg (CNHT) was wound down in February, and the euro peg (EURT) in November. XAUT's market cap stands at $3 billion, indicating its sustained popularity. Personally, I believe this is a strategically sound move: Tether is concentrating efforts on the most liquid and in-demand instrument, avoiding resource dispersion.
CME Group vs. CFTC: Battle Over Perpetual Futures
The operator of the world's largest futures exchange, CME Group, intends to sue the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). CEO Terrence Duffy stated the lawsuit will be filed on Thursday. The reason is the CFTC's approval of perpetual futures contracts for Kalshi and its neutral stance on a similar proposal from Coinbase. Duffy believes such contracts should be classified as swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act. He calls perpetual futures a "disaster" due to high leverage and participant inexperience, comparing the current situation to the eve of the 2008 crisis. In my view, Duffy's concerns are justified: perpetual futures are a high-risk instrument, and a lack of proper regulation could lead to systemic problems.
Ark Invest: Selling Robinhood, Buying Coinbase
Cathie Wood's investment firm Ark Invest executed major trades: selling nearly $29 million worth of Robinhood shares and buying $18.4 million worth of Coinbase shares. The Coinbase purchase was made through three ETFs, although the stock itself closed Wednesday down 2.57%, extending its monthly decline to nearly 13%. Robinhood, conversely, surged 8.78%. After the sale, Robinhood remains the fourth-largest position in the flagship ARKK fund, while Coinbase now ranks eighth. This suggests that Wood is betting on Coinbase's long-term potential as a key player in the crypto market's institutional infrastructure, taking profits on a more speculative asset.
My conclusion: The market is in a phase of accumulation and capital redistribution. Tether is consolidating its positions, CME is trying to block the emergence of new risky instruments, and major players like Ark Invest are shifting from short-term speculation to fundamental assets. This indicates that professionals are preparing for a more volatile, but potentially bullish, scenario in the second half of the year.