Crypto Morning June 22: Polymarket on lies, Secret Network hacked for $4.7 million, Japanese pension fund buys BTC
The morning of June 22 brought mixed sentiment to the market: Bitcoin is drifting sideways, Ethereum is losing ground, and three significant events stand out against the news backdrop. Polymarket is accused of large-scale betting manipulation to attract users, Secret Network lost $4.7 million due to a smart contract vulnerability, and in Japan, a major corporate pension fund decided to allocate 1% of its assets to cryptocurrency. Let's break down each case in detail.
Market in a Sideways Trend: BTC and ETH Without Movement
As of 07:30 Moscow time, Bitcoin is trading near $63,889, showing minimal volatility. Over the past 24 hours, the range was $63,221–$64,712. Ethereum is also not showing activity: the price is fixed at $1,731. Among the top 10 by market cap, the 24-hour leader is Tron (+0.51%), and the weekly leader is Solana (+3.49%). The laggards are Hyperliquid (-5.97% in 24 hours) and Dogecoin (-6.64% over seven days). In the top 100, SKYAI (+9.15% in 24 hours) and Aerodrome Finance (+34.93% over the week) stand out. The worst weekly result is from Audiera (-68.18%).
Polymarket: Fake Bets and Fake Websites
The prediction market platform Polymarket has found itself at the center of a scandal. An investigation showed that the company paid dozens of bloggers to film fake bets and winnings on copies of its website. Of the 1,105 videos reviewed, none of the shown bets totaling about $1.9 million were real. In one video, a student demonstrated a "win" of $100,000, although in reality, this bet was lost by more than 50 users. Fake websites were created for filming, including those with similar address spellings. Bloggers were paid $2,000–3,000 per month and asked not to disclose the collaboration. Notably, Polymarket has been banned for users from the US since 2022, although the campaign was specifically targeting Americans. This is the second scandal in a month: earlier, it was reported that the marketing director paid for unlabeled advertising through personal PayPal. Polymarket has promised to audit its promotional content.
Secret Network: $4.7 Million Hack via Infinite Minting
The Secret Network bridge was attacked on June 10, but it was only discovered a week later—after a transaction failure due to insufficient funds in a depleted account. 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 stolen assets were converted to Ether, distributed across approximately 30 wallets, and then withdrawn to exchanges. The hack is one of the largest in a series of June attacks, the number of which has exceeded 22.
Japanese Pension Fund Invests in Cryptocurrency
The National Corporate Pension Fund from Okayama, with assets of about 21.3 billion yen ($130 million), plans to allocate approximately 1% of its funds to purchase cryptocurrency in the 2026 fiscal year. According to Nikkei, 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 denominated in yen, and 15% in dollars. This is a significant signal for institutional adoption of digital assets in Asia.
My Analysis: The decision by the Japanese pension fund is not just a speculative gesture but a calculated step within a long-term strategy. 1% of $130 million is a modest amount, but the precedent itself is important. If such actions become a trend among corporate pension funds in Japan and other countries, we could see a new inflow of institutional capital that will support the market in the medium term. However, the scandals surrounding Polymarket and the Secret Network hack remind us that the sector still suffers from a lack of transparency and security.