Sustainability of the US-Iran ceasefire rally, Circle’s CPN launch, and the exposed DPRK IT infiltration case headline today’s news, while the crypto market continues to fluctuate in extreme fear. Today’s crypto market showed clear volatility as macro situation and onchain data pulled sentiment in opposite directions. News of a short-term ceasefire between the United States and Iran briefly lifted risk assets and triggered a fast rally across the market. That move later faded as geopolitical uncertainty remained unresolved and profit-taking pressure returned. Bitcoin fell back below the $71,000 level today, while Ethereum continued to trade in the range above $2,100. Onchain data showed that total liquidations across the market reached USD 274 million over the past 24 hours. Long liquidations accounted for about USD 172 million, while short liquidations came in at USD 102 million, showing that bullish positioning absorbed most of the pressure during the pullback. Notably, a well-known perpetual whale’s short position has moved back into profit, with unrealized gains now near USD 1.968 million on a total position size of USD 173 million. At the sector level, the RWA segment led losses with a 4.18% decline as sentiment cooled, while spot Solana ETF products also recorded USD 1.9208 million in single-day net outflows, reflecting a cautious stance from institutional capital at current price levels.

Crypto Markets Overview

Current market data suggest that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has dropped to 14, indicating a pronounced state of Extreme Fear. This weak sentiment reading mainly reflects uncertainty in the global macro environment, along with the chain reaction caused by large-scale long liquidations after the market failed to hold its intraday rebound. In terms of price action, Bitcoin pulled back to around $70,987 after testing higher levels earlier in the session, posting a daily decline of about 0.95%. This shows that support above $71,000 is still facing a meaningful stress test. Ethereum looked even weaker, slipping below a key level and falling back toward $2,100, with a 24-hour loss of 2.72%. That move shows confidence in the leading Layer 1 asset still needs more time to recover. Across market segments, the RWA sector fell the most with a 4.18% drop as overall risk appetite weakened, and major tokens such as Pendle and Ondo both posted notable pullbacks. This suggests speculative capital is moving quickly out of higher-risk narratives. Within the broader liquidation structure, long liquidations reached USD 172 million, indicating that too many bullish positions had built up during the short-lived rebound and amplified the cascading effect once prices turned lower.

Source: Alternative

Key News Highlights:

Bitcoin Triggers USD 280 Million in Liquidations After Breaking Above $72,000, but Can the Ceasefire Rally Hold?

Bitcoin and global financial markets staged a strong rebound after the United States and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire agreement. Bitcoin surged 6% in a short period on Tuesday and briefly moved above the $72,000 level. That sudden move triggered roughly USD 280 million in liquidations across the Bitcoin futures market and caught many traders off guard, especially those who had leaned bearish based on technical signals. Although the pause in Iran’s nuclear program and expectations of sanctions relief helped lift market sentiment, bearish pressure did not fully disappear after the U.S. vice president later described the agreement as a “fragile ceasefire.” Bitcoin is still trading with a high correlation to S&P 500 futures, and the move has been driven in large part by expectations that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen. Despite the scale of forced liquidations, derivatives data still suggest that bullish momentum remains limited, while demand for downside protection continues to dominate in the options market. At the same time, slow progress on the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve and continued uncertainty around regulation have kept the market skeptical about Bitcoin’s ability to establish a firm base above $80,000. With Brent crude still holding at elevated levels, inflation pressure has not fully faded. If any part of this two-week ceasefire begins to weaken, the risk of a Bitcoin retracement toward $68,000 will remain open, and traders are staying alert for another round of technical downside.

Circle Launches CPN Managed Payments to Deliver a Full-Stack Stablecoin Settlement Solution for Institutions

Circle has announced a new managed payment solution called Circle Payments Network, or CPN, Managed Payments, with the goal of simplifying stablecoin settlement for traditional financial institutions. The platform allows payment service providers, fintech firms, banks, and global enterprises to use regulated USDC for fast and efficient cross-border settlement without directly holding or managing digital assets themselves. Circle handles stablecoin minting and redemption, payment orchestration, and compliance controls, while also managing the underlying blockchain infrastructure. This allows partners to interact only through a fiat-facing interface. As USDC’s onchain transaction volume approached USD 12 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, demand from financial institutions for lower-cost and higher-efficiency settlement tools continued to grow. Custody risk and regulatory barriers, however, have remained major obstacles. The launch of this platform lowers the operational threshold for institutional adoption and, through partnerships with global payment firms such as Worldline and Veem, expands the role of stablecoins in merchant acquiring and large-scale global payouts. This type of full-stack settlement layer is likely to accelerate the integration of internet-native finance with the traditional financial system and create a smoother connection between fiat workflows and blockchain-based settlement rails.

Onchain Investigator Exposes North Korean IT Operation Making USD 1 Million per Month Through Fake Identities

According to a leaked document highlighted by onchain investigator ZachXBT, a group of North Korean IT workers used false identities to apply for developer jobs and generated more than USD 350 million in just a few months. These workers were not only engaged in legitimate development work, but also attempted to infiltrate and attack crypto projects for illicit gain. The document shows that one team of 140 people was generating about USD 1 million in illegal monthly income. The funds were later converted into fiat through online payment platforms such as Payoneer and transferred into designated bank accounts. The investigation found that the group coordinated through a server called “luckyguys.site” and used the extremely simple shared password “123456.” Some of the accounts also had direct links to entities sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. These North Korean workers reportedly used forged identity documents from Hong Kong or Ireland on hiring platforms and applied for a range of high-skill roles, including full-stack engineering jobs. Some were even involved in the development of well-known projects. Although the group’s technical methods were not considered as advanced as those used by some elite hacking organizations, its persistent infiltration efforts still pose a major threat to the crypto industry. Several major security incidents in the past, including cases involving a major CEX and the Ronin bridge, have been linked to North Korean-backed hacking activity. This case again highlights the urgent need for stronger hiring due diligence and tighter onchain fund-tracing practices across the industry.

Trending Tokens:

• $PI (Pi Network)

Pi Network has recently announced the completion of its first round of KYC validator reward distribution, marking a major step forward in automating identity verification across its decentralized ecosystem. The reward mechanism was officially launched on Pi Day 2026 and is designed to compensate validators for their role in maintaining network compliance. The team also disclosed a detailed reward calculation system. As the distribution process becomes more structured, Pi Network is gradually addressing the identity review bottleneck that stands in the way of large-scale user migration to mainnet. This progress not only strengthens user confidence in the long-term sustainability of its mobile mining model, but also provides a firmer compliance foundation for the project’s transition toward an open network. The market is now closely watching whether improved verification efficiency can help unlock the onchain economic potential of Pi Network’s massive user base.

• $ST (Sentio)

Sentio has drawn strong market attention and user participation through the launch of the second phase of its Booster campaign in partnership with a major exchange wallet. The campaign offers up to 12 million ST tokens in rewards and encourages users to explore its decentralized application monitoring, AI interaction, and onchain transaction analysis features. The project has also recently introduced support for a desktop browser extension, making it easier for both developers and everyday users to manage smart contract data across different devices. Driven by these developments, Sentio’s popularity index surged 93.98% over the past seven days, highlighting the strong momentum of developer platforms within the infrastructure segment. Backed by top-tier institutions such as Lightspeed and HashKey, Sentio is rapidly expanding its share of the observability platform market through deeper integration with mainstream wallets.

• $PUMPCADE (PUMPCADE)

PUMPCADE recently announced the completion of a $1 million oversubscribed funding round led by Pump.fun, with participation from Foundation Capital and RadioSolace. The funding will be used to build a high-speed prediction market on Solana, with a focus on replacing traditional committee-based arbitration through a provably automated resolution mechanism. As an emerging meme coin launch and prediction platform, PUMPCADE aims to deliver one of the fastest token creation and market settlement experiences for users. Following the funding announcement, the project’s popularity growth index jumped 220.82%, making it one of the most eye-catching trending projects in the Solana ecosystem. Its core strength lies in combining meme culture with a decentralized truth machine, addressing long-standing pain points in prediction markets around resolution speed and fairness. With institutional backing and a more complete technical framework now in place, the market broadly expects PUMPCADE to play an important role in the next wave of memecoin momentum.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this section is for informational purposes only and doesn't represent any investment advice or FameEX's official view.