After two back-to-back green sessions that briefly lifted sentiment, bitcoin slipped back toward $62,500 Tuesday as equities turned lower and bears reasserted control. The bounce has failed to attract meaningful spot demand — U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs remain in net outflow territory with $2.6 billion drained in 2026 so far, as retail investors have rotated into AI-related assets. Bernstein noted that bitcoin's ownership base has broadened considerably through ETFs, corporates, and wealth platforms, which it views as supporting its long-term store-of-value thesis — but the same diversification means the volatility-chasing capital that historically drove crypto recoveries is now sitting elsewhere. BlackRock separately warned that May CPI data due Wednesday could show renewed inflation acceleration tied to U.S.-Iran tensions in energy prices, adding another potential macro headwind. With the Fed meeting next week and no fresh catalysts on the horizon, the market is in a holding pattern: waiting for a reason to move and not finding one.
Equipment-financing lender Trad.Fi is partnering with blockchain infrastructure firm W3 to originate up to $650 million in private credit loans on public blockchain rails, using AI models to evaluate creditworthiness and automate capital workflows — replacing the manual underwriting process that has made private credit slow, opaque, and inaccessible to smaller borrowers. Loans will be tokenized on-chain, making them tradeable and transparent in a way traditional private credit is not. The deal is one of the largest announced targets for AI-underwritten onchain lending to real-economy businesses — as distinct from the DeFi-native crypto-collateralized lending that has dominated blockchain credit markets to date. It follows a16z and Paradigm's $175 million bet on Morpho and Apollo Global's strategic partnership with the same protocol, signaling that institutional capital is now actively building onchain credit infrastructure rather than just observing it.
Lekker Capital CIO Quinn Thompson is firmly bearish on crypto through summer, pointing to a confluence of structural headwinds: ongoing digital asset treasury concerns, unresolved questions around Strategy's STRC preferred shares creating potential BTC sell pressure, quantum computing risks to bitcoin's security model, and what he calls one of the largest divergences between crypto and tech stocks in recent years. Thompson is also bearish on tech itself — weakening Mag 7 leadership, rising hyperscaler debt, declining free cash flow from AI capex, and trillions in upcoming IPO supply all competing for capital. His bottom line: the market's problems aren't short-term. With CPI data due Wednesday and the Fed meeting next week, there's no near-term catalyst that changes the picture. His advice to crypto investors: take the summer off and reassess in September.
