Crypto Prices Dip as Iran Tensions Rise and ETF Money Flows Out

Bitcoin fell below $73, 000 after a surge of Iranian strikes that pushed oil higher and shook risk appetite. Two days of heavy withdrawals from Bitcoin spot ETFs have erased more than $1 billion, the largest loss since January. The slump spread to other major coins: Ethereum slipped under $2, 000 for the first time since April, and the high‑performing HYPE token dropped 10 percent. Meanwhile, analysts at Jefferies are bullish on a wave of crypto and blockchain IPOs that could push the sector’s public market value to $1 trillion in five years. Their forecast follows a recent conference where institutional investors shifted focus from price speculation to using blockchain for core financial services, such as tokenized funds and settlement networks. Key players on the IPO radar include Kraken’s parent company Payward, Securitize, Blockchain. com and Gemini, as well as traditional firms like settlement networks that may go public to support blockchain infrastructure. In politics, crypto‑focused political action committees are increasingly targeting Republican candidates. New PACs aligned with major crypto firms have spent over $9 million in Texas, helping to defeat incumbent representatives who are hostile to the industry. These groups operate alongside the bipartisan FairShake organization, creating a dual‑layer political presence that is already showing electoral influence.A Google security engineer was arrested for insider trading on Polymarket, the prediction‑market platform. The case involves using confidential search data to bet on future Google user rankings, resulting in a $1. 2 million profit that was later laundered through privacy tools. This is the second insider‑trading prosecution related to Polymarket this year, following a case involving an Army special forces soldier. On the broader market front, oil rose 2 percent while gold slipped about 1. 5 percent; stock futures were down, with the Nasdaq falling 0. 5 percent. In the crypto space, stablecoins and tokenized payment solutions are expanding: SoFi launched a bank‑issued stablecoin in its app, Block rolled out USDC payments to Cash App users, Mastercard secured a BitLicense for tokenized settlements, and Fold introduced a Bitcoin‑rewards credit card. A lawsuit in New York seeks ownership of dormant Bitcoin wallets, claiming that the coins are abandoned and should be returned to rightful owners.