Crypto Morning June 22: Polymarket on lies, Secret Network hack for $4.7 million, and Japanese pension fund enters bitcoin
The market greeted Saturday morning with sideways movement. Bitcoin (BTC) holds near the $63,889 mark, showing minimal volatility. However, much is happening behind the scenes: Polymarket was caught faking bets for publicity, the Secret Network bridge was hacked for millions of dollars, and a Japanese corporate pension fund decided to allocate 1% of its assets to cryptocurrency. We break down the key events.
Market: Bitcoin and Ether in consolidation
As of 07:30 Moscow time, Bitcoin is trading at $63,889 (approximately 4,677,602 rubles). Over the past 24 hours, the low was $63,221 and the high was $64,712. Ether (ETH) is also showing sideways movement at $1,731 (approximately 126,659 rubles).
Among the top 10 by market cap, the best performer over the past 24 hours is Tron (+0.51%), and over the week, Solana (+3.49%). The worst performer over 24 hours is Hyperliquid (-5.97%), and over seven days, Dogecoin (-6.64%).
In the top 100, the best daily gain is SKYAI (+9.15%), and the weekly gain is Aerodrome Finance (+34.93%). The largest losses over the past 24 hours are Humanity (-10.51%), and over the week, Audiera (-68.18%).
Polymarket: Scandal with fakes
The prediction market platform Polymarket has found itself at the center of a new scandal. It turned out that the company paid dozens of bloggers to film fake bets and winnings on counterfeit copies of its website. Of the 1,105 videos reviewed, none of the shown bets totaling approximately $1.9 million were real. In one video, a student demonstrated a "win" of $100,000 — in reality, this bet was lost by more than 50 users.
Bloggers were paid $2,000–3,000 per month, with a requirement not to disclose the collaboration. Notably, Polymarket has been banned for users from the US since 2022, but the campaign was specifically targeting Americans. This is the second scandal in a month: earlier, it was reported that the marketing director paid for undisclosed advertising through personal PayPal. Polymarket has promised to audit its promotional content.
Secret Network bridge hack for $4.67 million
The Secret Network bridge was exploited through an infinite minting vulnerability. The attacker used a smart contract that did not verify the source of incoming transfers and created unbacked wrapped tokens: saUSDT, saUSDC, saWETH, saWBTC, and others.
The attack occurred on June 10 but was only discovered a week later — after a transaction failed due to insufficient funds in a depleted account. The stolen assets were converted to Ether and distributed across approximately 30 wallets, then withdrawn to exchanges. This hack is one of the largest in a series of June attacks, the number of which exceeded 22.
Japanese pension fund enters crypto
The National Corporate Pension Fund from Okayama, with assets of approximately 21.3 billion yen ($130 million), plans to allocate about 1% of its funds to purchase cryptocurrency in the 2026 fiscal year. The fund will invest in a passive fund managed by a major hedge fund that holds several crypto assets. The move is presented as part of a diversification strategy: currently, 80% of the fund's assets are in yen, and 15% in dollars.
My comment: The decision by the Japanese pension fund is a significant signal for institutional adoption. 1% may seem modest, but for a conservative segment, this is a serious step that could prompt other Asian funds to take similar actions. Amid hacks and scandals, it is precisely such long-term news that forms the foundation for market growth.