TL;DR
The Nasdaq Composite plunged 4.70% to 25,297.62 as investors aggressively unwound AI-related positions amid surging hardware costs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.60%, reflecting a sharp rotation into defensive sectors.
Headline PCE inflation rose above the 4% threshold to 4.1%, while Q1 GDP was revised upward to 2.1%, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s new 3.8% median policy rate path under Chairman Kevin Warsh.
Brent crude fell below US$72 per barrel as more than 330 vessels resumed partial transit through the Strait of Hormuz. However, a military strike on a container ship and the cancellation of a Swiss signing ceremony renewed geopolitical tensions.
Altcoins continued to underperform — particularly long-tail tokens — as a stronger U.S. dollar, hawkish Fed expectations, and the rotation into AI equities weighed on overall risk appetite.
STRC remained under pressure ahead of the key June 30 event, trading around US$74 and implying an approximate 15% yield. June 30 is significant because both the ex-dividend date and the dividend rate resetoccur simultaneously. The key question is whether Strategy can raise the dividend rate sufficiently to restore investor confidence amid weaker BTC prices and a thinner balance-sheet buffer.
The SEC and CFTC are seeking public feedback on harmonizing portfolio margin requirements.
Fomo raised US$75 million to expand its consumer-focused on-chain trading platform.
Allium raised US$40 million to build blockchain data infrastructure for institutional clients.
Ornn raised US$33 million to develop financial infrastructure for AI compute.
Macro Overview
Tech Rout Triggers Steep Nasdaq Plunge as Hot PCE Inflation and Hawkish Fed Shift Fuel Rate Hike Bets
U.S. equity markets suffered a brutal tech-led liquidation last week as market participants aggressively unwound crowded exposures to artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index plunged 4.70% to close at 25,297.62 points, marking its steepest weekly contraction since early April, while the broader S&P 500 index retreated 2.05% to settle at 7,353.95 points. In stark contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.60% to finish at 51,876.11 points as capital rapidly rotated into defensive value sectors. Sentiment soured after hardware input costs pressured corporate margins, with Apple announcing steep 20% hardware price hikes due to soaring memory costs, and OpenAI reportedly delaying its highly anticipated initial public offering.
Domestic macroeconomic data confirmed that inflation pressures are becoming deeply entrenched within the American economy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that headline PCE inflation accelerated to 4.1% year over year in May, crossing the critical 4% threshold for the first time since 2023. Core PCE inflation expanded 3.4% year over year on a hot 0.4% monthly increase. Concurrently, the final estimate for Q1 GDP growth was revised sharply upward to a 2.1% annualized rate. However, consumer spending metrics were slashed to 0.5%, while AI-related business equipment investments surged 15.8%, single-handedly driving 74% of overall economic expansion.
The hawkish monetary policy regime under new Chairman Kevin Warsh dominated market pricing last week after the Fed held the federal funds rate steady at 3.50%-3.75% in a unanimous 12–0 vote. Policymakers aggressively lifted 2026 PCE inflation projections to 3.6% and shifted the median year-end rate path to 3.8% to imply that the next policy adjustment is an interest rate hike rather than a cut. Market participants now price an 80% probability of at least one rate increase before December.
Geopolitical dynamics shifted rapidly as the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz allowed over 330 vessels to transit, restoring half of pre-war daily shipping volumes. Consequently, energy risk premiums collapsed with Brent crude sliding below $72 per barrel on Friday and WTI crude dropping over 3% to settle at $69.50. However, ongoing physical friction and uncertainty regarding Iranian transit fees continue to keep market participants highly cautious about energy stability.
The Bank of Japan June policy summary signaled aggressive monetary tightening ahead as board members noted accelerating domestic inflation. Having already raised its benchmark policy rate to 1.0%, the central bank’s hawkish commentary reinforced expectations of another interest rate hike in late 2026. This tightening bias triggered massive equity volatility, with the Nikkei 225 index plunging 4.15% to close at 69,360.88 points amid a collapse in local tech shares.
Market participants will next week closely scrutinize crucial domestic employment indicators during a holiday-shortened trading session to assess labor market tightness. Key economic updates include the JOLTS job openings report, ADP employment changes, and the vital Friday June Jobs Report. Traders will also closely monitor the ISM Manufacturing PMI to gauge supply chain conditions and the momentum of industrial growth amid restrictive global monetary policies. (1)
DXY
The U.S. Dollar Index advanced aggressively as the DXY index opened at 100.84 and rallied to touch a fresh one-year high of 101.80 before easing to close near 101.366 for a 0.52% weekly gain. This greenback bidding was underpinned by hawkish policy repricing after headline PCE inflation crossed the critical 4.0% threshold. However, a sharp late-week retreat in global oil benchmarks helped mitigate broader inflation anxieties, capping further dollar expansion. (2)
US 10-Year and 30-Year Bond Yields
U.S. Treasury yields experienced notable volatility, with the 10-year yield opening above 4.50% before softening late in the week as crashing global oil prices provided a structural disinflationary offset. This elevated fixed-income environment was further cemented by the new issuance of the 20-year bond at a high yield of 5.00% on June 22. Long-term borrowing costs remained anchored at these higher levels as bond markets continued to digest the combination of a hawkish policy trajectory and persistent core price pressures across the curve. (3)
Gold
Gold prices suffered a fourth consecutive weekly loss after gapping lower at the Monday open at $4,144.68, marking a sharp decline from the prior week’s close. Bullion succumbed to the headwinds of a stronger dollar and hit a mid-week low of $3,990.00 before staging a modest technical recovery to close near $4,088.87 for a 1.34% weekly drop. Sentiment was further pressured as Goldman Sachs slashed its year-end target to $4,900.00. (4)
Crypto Markets Overview
Main Assets
ETH/BTC Ratio
BTC fell 6.4% last week, while ETH underperformed with a 7.9% decline. The ETH/BTC ratio dropped 2.2%, reflecting continued relative weakness in ETH.
On the flow side, spot BTC ETFs recorded another all-time-high weekly net outflow of $1.79B, marking the seventh consecutive week of outflows. Spot ETH ETFs also saw $273.3M in net outflows. (5)
Market sentiment deteriorated further, with the Fear & Greed Index falling to 12, down from 23 last week, pushing sentiment deeper into the extreme fear zone. (6)
Total Market Cap
Crypto Total Marketcap
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding BTC and ETH
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding Top 10 Dominance
Total crypto market cap fell 5.4% last week, while market cap excluding BTC and ETH declined 3.7%. The broader altcoin market saw deeper pressure, with the altcoin market cap excluding the top 10 dropping 6.4%.
STRC Performance
STRC recorded US$1.8B in trading volume last week, while trading below par for the sixth consecutive week. It fell to around $74, roughly 26% below its $100 par value. (7)
Market attention is now on June 30, when STRC’s ex-dividend date and monthly dividend-rate reset both occur. Eligible holders will receive the first semi-monthly dividend of $0.48 per share on July 15, but the dividend itself is not the key issue, as it represents less than 0.7% of STRC’s current price, which is far below the 2–3% daily move seen in June.
The more important question is whether Strategy raises STRC’s dividend rate. The nominal rate has stayed at 11.50% for four months, but with STRC trading around $73–74, its implied yield is now roughly 15%. A modest reset to 12% or 12.50% may still be insufficient to bring STRC back toward par.
Ultimately, STRC’s pressure depends less on the dividend reset and more on BTC price and Strategy’s balance-sheet buffer.
With roughly 846,000 BTC, Strategy’s holdings are worth about $50.7B when BTC trades near $59,888, below its estimated $64.07B cost basis. This compresses the cushion protecting preferred holders, while MSTR’s weak share price also limits the company’s ability to raise capital through ATM issuance.
Among Bitcoin treasury preferred securities, STRC accounted for 75% of total trading volume last week, down from 76.2% in the previous week. The second largest was Strive’s SATA, which accounts for 11.4%. (8)
Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance
Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of 29th June 2026
The top 30 cryptocurrencies fell 4.7% on average last week, only AVAX posting gain.
The altcoin market continued to underperform, with pressure mainly coming from three macro and liquidity factors: a stronger U.S. dollar, a more hawkish Fed path, and capital rotation into AI-related equities.
Together, these have tightened global risk liquidity and reduced the market’s willingness to hold higher-beta crypto assets. As a result, long-tail altcoins remain more vulnerable than BTC and large-cap tokens in the current risk-off environment.
The Key Crypto Highlights
Enso launches RWA app with access to 500+ tokenized assets
Enso is a Switzerland-based Web3 infrastructure platform focused on simplifying onchain execution across different protocols and applications. It has now launched an RWA trading app that aggregates access to more than 500 tokenized assets, including US stocks, ETFs, Treasurys, commodities and stablecoins, through integrations with xStocks, Ondo Finance and Anchorage Digital’s Porto. The launch shows that the RWA market is moving beyond simple asset issuance toward distribution and execution: users do not just need tokenized assets to exist, they need a unified interface to access fragmented issuers, venues and liquidity pools. (8)
Australia’s ASIC extends crypto licensing relief to September
Australia’s financial regulator ASIC has extended its temporary "no-action" relief for crypto businesses from June 30 to September 30, 2026, giving digital asset firms more time to apply for or vary an Australian Financial Services Licence, and potentially market or clearing and settlement authorizations. The relief was also expanded to cover firms operating through authorized representatives or intermediary arrangements with licensed entities, widening the transition path for crypto businesses. The move suggests Australia is not stepping back from regulation, but giving the industry a longer runway to migrate into the existing financial services licensing regime as crypto exchanges, tokenized custody platforms and other digital asset service providers face clearer compliance expectations. (9)
SEC and CFTC seek public input on portfolio margin harmonization
The SEC and CFTC have jointly opened a public comment process on whether US portfolio margin rules should be better aligned across securities, futures and swaps markets. Portfolio margin allows firms to calculate margin based on the net risk of a combined portfolio rather than treating each position in isolation, which can reduce capital inefficiency when related positions sit across different regulatory regimes. The move signals deeper SEC-CFTC coordination as traditional securities, derivatives and crypto markets become increasingly interconnected, and could eventually support more efficient margin treatment for firms trading tokenized securities, crypto derivatives or cross-market hedging strategies, while still keeping customer protection and systemic risk controls at the center. (10)
Key Ventures Deals
Fomo raises US$75M to scale consumer onchain trading app
Fomo raised US$75 million in a Series B round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Benchmark and several angel investors, valuing the consumer crypto trading app at US$550 million. The funding will support team expansion and potential acquisitions as Fomo builds a social-first, fully onchain trading platform designed to make token and app trading feel closer to mainstream consumer fintech. The raise reflects renewed investor appetite for consumer crypto, especially products that abstract away wallet, chain and liquidity complexity while keeping users directly connected to onchain markets. (11)
Allium raises US$40M to build blockchain data infrastructure for institutions
Allium raised US$40 million in a Series B round led by Amplify Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Theory Ventures, bringing its total funding to around US$61.5 million. The company provides blockchain data infrastructure that helps enterprises, banks and asset managers clean, structure and analyze onchain data, with customers and users including Visa, BCG, Stripe, Uniswap Foundation and Phantom. The raise reflects growing institutional demand for reliable crypto data pipelines, especially as stablecoins, tokenized assets and onchain payments move from retail-native use cases into enterprise and Wall Street workflows. (12)
Ornn raises US$33M to build financial infrastructure for AI compute
Ornn secured US$33 million in a seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Nordstar, SV Angel, Vine Ventures, Crucible Capital, Link Ventures and Box Group, to build financial products for GPU compute markets. The funding will support Ornn Compute, its physical capacity layer that aggregates dedicated GPU capacity across neocloud providers, alongside its OCPI benchmark, which tracks live traded GPU spot prices and is designed to support pricing, financing and hedging tools for compute. The raise reflects growing investor interest in treating AI compute as a commodity-like market, where buyers, data center operators and capital providers need standardized pricing, secondary liquidity and risk-transfer infrastructure as GPU demand becomes more volatile and capital-intensive. (13)
Ventures Market Metrics
The number of deals closed in the previous week was 18, Infra having 10 deals, with Data and Social having 3 deals respectively, and DeFI having 2 deals.
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 29th Jun 2026
The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $210.3M. 5 deals did not disclose fundraising amount. The top funding came from the DeFi sector with $114M. Most funded deals: fomo ($75M).
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 29th June 2026
Total weekly fundraising surged to $210.3M for the fifth week of June-2026, an increase of 432% compared to the week prior.
About Gate Ventures
Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.com, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.
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Reference:
IG Global Week Ahead Economic Preview, https://www.ig.com/au/news-and-trade-ideas/week-ahead--29-june-2026-260626
DXY Index, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/z1UD772v/?symbol=TVC%3ADXY
US 10 Year Bond Yield, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/B9cgEklh/?symbol=TVC%3AUS10Y
Gold Price, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/z1UD772v/?symbol=TVC%3AGOLD
BTC & ETH ETF Inflow, https://sosovalue.com/tc/assets/etf/us-btc-spot
BTC Greed and Fear Index, https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index/
STRC Dashboard, https://bitcoinquant.co/preferred-equity
Enso launches RWA app with access to 500+ tokenized assets, https://cointelegraph.com/news/enso-launches-rwa-app-trading-500-tokenized-assets
Australia’s ASIC extends crypto licensing relief to September, https://cointelegraph.com/news/australia-asic-extends-crypto-licensing-relief-september
SEC and CFTC seek public input on portfolio margin harmonization, https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-cftc-portfolio-margin-rules
Fomo raises US$75M to scale consumer onchain trading app, https://fortune.com/2026/06/22/fomo-series-b-fundraise-index-ventures-union-square-ventures/
Allium raises US$40M to build blockchain data infrastructure for institutions, https://fortune.com/2026/06/23/allium-series-b-amplify-partners-crypto-analytics-startups/
Ornn raises US$33M to build financial infrastructure for AI compute, https://x.com/OrnnExchange/status/2069760195010367787
