The market this morning

Ethereum researcher urges "bunker mode" as ETH and XRP lead a broad market slide

By Crypto Info News

Good morning. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake urged holders to calmly move their funds to unused addresses, according to Decrypt, warning that AI-driven math could break crypto signatures before quantum computers do. The Block reported that Drake called for "bunker mode" planning over private key recovery risk, recommending that assets be moved to fresh addresses whose public keys stay hidden behind a hash. The two accounts describe the same advice: shift holdings to addresses that have not yet been used.

The market closed lower across the largest tokens. Ether ended the day at $2,573.23, down about 4.6% over 24 hours, while XRP fell about 5.1% to $1.42. BNB slipped about 0.9% to $772.05. The two largest dollar stablecoins held near par, with USDT at $0.9996 and USDC at $0.9997. Glassnode, in its weekly on-chain note "A Rally Running Light," said bitcoin pushed through the $85K ask wall on thin volume and little new money and has since slipped back, adding that options traders lean bullish, liquidation levels stack up below price, and altcoins look stretched.

Institutional and enterprise activity continued. CoinDesk reported that Wells Fargo is in talks with Kraken parent Payward over supplying liquidity for crypto trading, framing it as major banks deepening their involvement in digital assets. Cointelegraph reported that Circle is bringing USDC and EURC payments to SAP customers through the SAP-backed firm Tereina, letting businesses move the stablecoins from within software they already use. CoinDesk also reported that Polygon is tapping TRON's $94 billion USDT supply to move the stablecoin between TRON and EVM networks without a wallet provider, bridge or fiat-ramp operator. Decrypt and Cointelegraph both reported that Tether signed a deal with Kazakhstan's central bank to explore a tenge-pegged stablecoin and asset tokenization.

Elsewhere, The Block reported that Grayscale sees the crypto ETF market entering a new phase as a Zcash ETF topped $1 billion, with SEC listing standards covering about 15 tokens. Decrypt reported that Rep. French Hill said SEC and CFTC crypto rules "fall short" of clarity and that only "permanent law change" can secure U.S. leadership. Decrypt also reported that U.S. government-labeled wallets sent 833.6 BTC to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses and shuffled 40,285 BNB, moving about $103 million in seized assets, with no sale confirmed. The Block reported that Solana's Orca is merging with Loopscale as Formation, targeting financing for AI, energy, robotics and defense. And in memecoin news, Cointelegraph and The Block reported Hunter Biden's comments on the LAPTOP token, which he said was "not a rug pull" but trolling, alongside a commissioned report detailing thin liquidity at launch.

What to watch: whether bitcoin reclaims the $85K level Glassnode flagged, and whether the Wells Fargo–Payward talks and Tether–Kazakhstan study move beyond discussion.