U.S. stocks: The three major indexes closed lower this morning, with SanDisk rising over 11% and Tesla falling nearly 6%.

According to GMGN market data, the Robinhood ecosystem meme coin GRASS briefly surged past $13.6 million in market cap early this morning, hitting an all-time high, and has since pulled back to $8.3 million. It has recorded a 111% 24-hour price increase and a $8.7 million 24-hour trading volume. GRASS combines the internet meme "Touch Grass" with the gameplay of a stock-themed Pokémon GO. The project is officially positioned as a game, where tokenized fractional shares of real stocks (including AAPL, NVDA, TSLA, GME, etc., on Robinhood Chain) "spawn" at the physical locations of their respective companies—such as Apple Stores, GameStop outlets, Tesla showrooms, etc. Users can claim these tokenized stock fractions to their wallets by tapping on them when nearby. BlockBeats reminds users that most meme coins lack practical use cases and are highly volatile; please protect your assets and avoid FOMO.

Bitcoin has recently re-emerged as a safe-haven asset, hitting a four-month high of $82,262 this week before pulling back to around $79,800. André Dragosch, head of European research at Bitwise, said that amid rising macroeconomic uncertainty and currency devaluation risks, investors are increasingly viewing Bitcoin less as a high-risk tech asset and more as a store of value. Dragosch noted that Bitcoin’s 90-day price correlation with gold is near its highest level in six years. He argued that as macro forces strengthen and currency devaluation risks rise, investors are blurring the lines between Bitcoin and gold, with the cryptocurrency recently acting as an “amplified version of gold”. However, the four-year cycle theory remains a headwind for Bitcoin’s outlook. The theory links Bitcoin’s bull-bear cycles to its halving events. Fidelity projects that if historical cycle patterns hold, Bitcoin’s next bear market bottom could land around November 2026. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, previously estimated that the baseline scenario for this correction would bottom in the $40,000 to $46,000 range. Chris Kuiper, vice president of research at Fidelity Digital Assets, argued that the four-year cycle is not an exact timing rule, meaning it does not guarantee Bitcoin will decline later this year, and a long-term perspective and holding period have historically been more beneficial for investors.

Circle recently released details on the reserve mechanism for its wrapped Bitcoin product cirBTC, emphasizing that cirBTC is backed 1:1 by native BTC, with segregated asset custody and an on-chain verifiable reserve model. According to Circle, cirBTC is now live on Ethereum; it will offer native support after the Arc mainnet launches, and plans to gradually expand to more blockchains. Each cirBTC is 1:1 backed by one native BTC and can be redeemed for native BTC at a 1:1 ratio. For reserve management, the relevant BTC is held by a Circle affiliate and custodied by Circle National Trust, which is regulated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Reserve assets are segregated from Circle’s corporate assets and used exclusively to protect cirBTC holders’ rights and interests. Furthermore, Circle enables on-chain reserve verification via public BTC reserve addresses and the Chainlink Proof of Reserve mechanism. Market participants can monitor the size of reserve BTC and compare it with cirBTC circulating supply on each supported chain to confirm that cirBTC circulation does not exceed the underlying BTC reserve. Circle noted that this model is designed to provide institutions with a more transparent wrapped BTC reserve standard, and to support BTC as collateral for on-chain smart contract use cases including lending, trading, and settlement.

According to Arkham, Elon Musk reportedly mistakenly replied to a hacked X account. The compromised @shivon account had earlier posted two consecutive posts about the SLINK project, after which Musk responded with a "100" emoji, sparking market speculation that he was backing the token. SLINK’s market cap briefly surged past $40 million before plummeting and gradually "going to zero". The @shivon account has since deleted the related posts, and it is confirmed to have been hacked. Trader Aurelius0121 stated that upon seeing Musk interacting with the @shivon account, he mistakenly believed Musk was supporting a project linked to Musk’s partner, so he bought approximately $250,000 worth of SLINK tokens. However, the token’s price subsequently crashed to zero, resulting in a total loss of his funds. Shivon Zilis (@shivon) is a Canadian tech executive and venture capitalist, currently serving as Director of Operations and Special Projects at Musk’s brain-computer interface firm Neuralink, and is also the mother of multiple of Musk’s children.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, people familiar with the negotiations said U.S. negotiators leveraged promises of access to NVIDIA (NVDA.O) artificial intelligence (AI) chips to help broker a preliminary peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year. A previously unreported detail is that, to encourage Armenia’s participation in the talks, the U.S. specifically expanded chip procurement approval authority for Armenia’s data center projects. This move stands as one of the most notable cases to date, embodying what U.S. officials term “chip diplomacy”. While the Trump administration had previously used AI hardware in negotiations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, the Armenia deal marked the first time the administration publicly deployed such a tactic to facilitate a peace accord. The agreement further deepened the White House’s ties with the world’s largest chipmaker.

According to monitoring by OnchainLens, two cryptocurrency market-making firms, Galaxy Digital and Wintermute, currently hold significantly bearish positions on Hyperliquid. Wintermute holds approximately $99.82 million in short positions and $5.12 million in long positions, while Galaxy Digital holds around $26.41 million in short positions and $6.21 million in long positions. Combined, the two firms hold roughly $126.23 million in total short positions, compared to just about $11.33 million in long positions. Over the past 30 days, addresses associated with both firms have posted losses: Wintermute lost approximately $15.3 million, and Galaxy Digital lost around $5.96 million.