Leading cryptocurrencies were range-bound on Wednesday, while stocks closed higher as investors weighed de-escalation prospects in the Middle East war.

Crypto Market Consolidates

Bitcoin traded sideways between $70,380 and the mid-$71,000s, with trading volume down 13% over the past day.

Ethereum also meandered in the $2,100 region as bullish momentum stalled against strong resistance at $2,200. XRP and Dogecoin also consolidated.

Over $150 million in crypto positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with $100 million in short positions alone wiped out,  according to Coinglass data.

Open interest in Bitcoin futures rose a further 2.66% in the last 24 hours, while the majority of retail…

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Bitcoin hovered around $70,000 as improving macro sentiment, driven by easing geopolitical tensions, lifted the broader crypto market on Wednesday.

Notable Statistics:

Coinglass data shows 79,540 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $219.11 million.       

SoSoValue data shows net outflows of $74.5 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Tuesday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $40.8 million.

In the past 24 hours, top gainers include siren, MemeCore and Decred.

Notable Developments:

Trader Notes:

Crypto trader Kevin said altcoins could significantly outperform Bitcoin between late 2026 and mid-2027, driven by a surge in global liquidity.

He said such a shift may be…

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XRP’s (CRYPTO: XRP) recent range-bound price action has traders questioning whether a pullback may come before an eventual breakout.

Short Term Uncertainty

In a podcast on Tuesday, analyst Cryptoinsightuk outlined that XRP may see further downside toward $1 before a larger breakout, as traders weigh short-term uncertainty against a bullish long-term setup.

He added that XRP remains in a consolidation phase, with price compressing within a wedge-like structure. This setup leaves room for either an upside breakout or continued drift lower in the near term.

A move toward $1 by June remains possible, he added, as part of ongoing volatility compression. However, such price action often builds…

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Venture capitalist Mark Yusko says Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) abandoned the crypto industry after years of support, with the Clarity Act settlement on stablecoin yield representing regulatory capture rather than the clarity the industry needs.

The Lummis Betrayal

“Senator Lummis, I thought was on our team and she actually acted like she was on our team for a very long time and now suddenly she’s this great supporter of this horrible bill, which means somebody got to her,” Yusko said on The Wolf Of All Streets podcast on Wednesday.

The Clarity Act settlement means banks win while crypto gets nothing. Lummis recently tweeted a yield sign that investors interpreted as bullish for…

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Proposed updates to the Clarity Act could limit how stablecoin rewards are offered, posing the biggest risk to centralized crypto platforms such as Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), according to Needham Research.

Stablecoin Rewards In Focus

Needham said a key concern is a potential ban on passive yield for stablecoin holders on exchanges.

Such a move would affect platforms like Coinbase, where earning yield has been a major driver of user adoption. In contrast, decentralized finance platforms are expected to remain largely unaffected, as their rewards are typically classified as “active” rather than passive.

The final scope remains unclear, particularly around what qualifies as activity-based rewards….

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The SpaceX IPO Timeline

Polymarket bettors give SpaceX a 90% chance of going public by September 30 and a 70% chance by June 30. 

The company targets a June listing with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America in senior roles.

On valuation, 49% of traders expect the closing market cap to exceed $2 trillion, which would place SpaceX as the 6th largest company by market cap below Amazon and above TSMC. 

SpaceX quietly raised its Falcon 9 launch price from $69.75 million to $74 million between mid-January and early February, fattening margins ahead of the S-1.

The Starlink Growth Engine

The SpaceX IPO is really about Starlink, a satellite internet network that crossed $10…

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Gold’s slide into a bear market is colliding with an unexpected trend: investors are pouring money into Bitcoin ETFs instead.

This dichotomy is particularly interesting, as the price of gold has declined by over 20% from its January highs, which is enough to qualify as a bear market, whereas U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have received over $2 billion in inflows over the last few weeks.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT) is already in the top 2% among all ETFs in YTD flows.

ETF Flows Tell The Real Story

Perhaps the most visible aspect of this is the flow data.

The largest gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD), recorded a record monthly outflow of…

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