Daily Crypto Market Overview: Secret Network Hack, Polymarket Scandal, and Japanese Pension Fund Enters Crypto
The market started the day with sideways movement. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $63,889, showing minimal volatility in the range of $63,221 – $64,712. Ethereum (ETH) is also flat at $1,731. However, behind these calm figures lie events that could significantly impact investor sentiment.
Top 10: Leaders and Laggards
Among the top cryptocurrencies by market cap, Tron (+0.51%) posted the best daily performance, while Solana (+3.49%) led for the week. Hyperliquid (-5.97%) showed the worst 24-hour performance, and Dogecoin (-6.64%) was the weakest over seven days. In the top 100, SKYAI (+9.15% daily) and Aerodrome Finance (+34.93% weekly) stood out. The biggest losses were recorded by Humanity (-10.51% daily) and Audiera (-68.18% weekly).
Polymarket: Fake Bets and Counterfeit Sites
The prediction market platform Polymarket has found itself at the center of a scandal. It was revealed that the company paid dozens of bloggers to film fake bets and winnings on copies of its website. Out of 1,105 verified videos, none of the displayed bets totaling approximately $1.9 million were real. In one video, a student showcased a "win" of $100,000, even though that bet was actually lost by over 50 users.
For the filming, Polymarket created fake websites, including some with similar domain names. Bloggers were paid $2,000-3,000 per month and asked not to disclose the collaboration. Notably, since 2022, the platform has been banned from working with users in the US, 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 a personal PayPal account. Polymarket has promised to audit its promotional content.
Secret Network Hack: Infinite Mint Vulnerability
The Secret Network bridge suffered a $4.67 million hack. The attacker exploited 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 The stolen assets were converted to ether and distributed across approximately 30 wallets, then withdrawn to exchanges.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 has exceeded 22.
Japanese Pension Fund Allocates 1% to 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. This is a step in a diversification strategy: currently, 80% of the fund's assets are denominated in yen, and 15% in dollars.
My analysis: The decision by the Japanese pension fund is a significant signal for institutional adoption. Even 1% of $130 million may seem modest, but the precedent is important. If such moves become a trend among conservative Asian funds, we could see a new influx of liquidity capable of supporting the market amid current uncertainty.