Crypto Morning June 22: Polymarket on lies, Secret Network hack for $4.7 million, and Japanese pension fund enters crypto
The market greets the morning without sharp movements. Bitcoin (BTC) remains in a sideways trend, trading around $63,889. Over the past 24 hours, the high was $64,712 and the low was $63,221. Ether (ETH) is also static at $1,731. In the top 10 by market cap, the best daily performance is from Tron (+0.51%), and the best weekly performance is from Solana (+3.49%). The worst daily performance is from Hyperliquid (-5.97%), and the worst weekly performance is from Dogecoin (-6.64%). In the top 100, SKYAI leads (+9.15% daily) and Aerodrome Finance (+34.93% weekly). The biggest losses over 24 hours are from Humanity (-10.51%), and over seven days from Audiera (-68.18%). The market is clearly waiting, consolidating before a potential impulse.
Polymarket caught in fake bets and paid bloggers
The prediction market platform Polymarket is at the center of a scandal. An investigation revealed a massive marketing campaign built on deception. Polymarket paid dozens of bloggers to film fake bets and winnings. Out of 1,105 verified videos, none of the shown bets totaling approximately $1.9 million were real. In one video, a student displayed a "win" of $100,000, while in reality, that bet was lost by over 50 users. Fake websites were created for filming, including some with similar address spellings. Bloggers were paid $2,000–3,000 per month and asked not to disclose the partnership. Notably, Polymarket has been banned for users from the US since 2022, yet the campaign was specifically targeting Americans. This is the second scandal in a month: earlier, it was revealed that the marketing director paid for unlabeled advertising through personal PayPal. The company promised to audit its promotional content. For me, this is a worrying signal: if a platform claiming to be a leader in decentralized predictions uses such methods, trust in it is seriously undermined.
Secret Network hack: infinite minting vulnerability cost $4.67 million
The Secret Network bridge suffered a hacker attack. 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, distributed across approximately 30 wallets, and then withdrawn to exchanges. This hack was one of the largest in a series of June attacks, which exceeded 22 in number. Another reminder that cross-chain bridge security remains a weak link in the ecosystem.
Japanese pension fund to allocate 1% of assets to cryptocurrency
The National Corporate Pension Fund from Okayama (Japan), serving about 1,200 small and medium-sized enterprises, plans to allocate approximately 1% of its assets to purchase cryptocurrency in the 2026 fiscal year. According to Nikkei, the fund, with assets of about 21.3 billion yen ($130 million), will invest in a passive fund managed by a major hedge fund that holds several crypto assets. This step is part of a diversification strategy: currently, 80% of the fund's assets are in yen, and 15% in dollars. The decision by the Japanese pension fund is a significant signal of institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. Even a modest 1% from such a fund opens the door for larger players.
My analysis: The morning of June 22 confirms that the market is in an accumulation phase. Scandals around Polymarket and yet another bridge hack are not causing panic, while news from Japan adds optimism. Institutional interest continues to grow, and in my view, this is a more significant factor than local negative events. Keep an eye on projects with strong fundamental foundations—they will be the first to surge when the trend shifts.