Gate Ventures This Week's Cryptocurrency Market Trends (June 1, 2026)

Summary

• U.S. stock indexes rose across the board, with the Nasdaq leading the gains up 1.19%, while the dollar index weakened to 98.942, reflecting a re-pricing of investor expectations for monetary policy.

• U.S. Treasury yields retreated, with the 10-year yield falling to 4.437%, indicating a temporary easing of inflation pressures; combined with geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East, gold prices surged to close at $4,538.160.

• Despite robust first-quarter GDP growth of 2.5%, market sentiment remains relatively moderate, but core PCE remains sticky at 2.8%, further reinforcing the Fed’s stance to keep interest rates high to prevent further economic deterioration.

• Bitcoin spot ETF saw net outflows of $1.42 billion in a single week, the second-largest weekly outflow on record.

• STRC remains under pressure, with all trading volume occurring below face value. Meanwhile, market interest in SATA, a product under Strive offering alternative Bitcoin treasury yields, continues to rise as funds shift away from traditional Bitcoin yield products.

• XLM surged 83%, benefiting from Stellar’s partnership with DTCC on tokenized asset support; HYPE increased 18%, driven by continued ETF capital inflows and Grayscale’s push to list the Hyperliquid staking ETF.

• The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued guidance on regulated perpetual cryptocurrency futures trading.

• Paxos became the first native crypto firm to receive clearing agency registration from the SEC.

• Samsung invested $408 million in Upbit operator Dunamu.

Macro Overview

Tech stocks lead gains amid a weaker dollar and falling yields, with inflation still sticky

Last week, U.S. stock indexes advanced across the board, with all three major benchmarks rising in tandem. The tech sector regained investor favor, with the Nasdaq Composite leading at a 1.19% increase, closing at 26,972.62 points. Following closely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.13% to 51,032.46, and the S&P 500 rose 0.81% to 7,580.06. This broad upward momentum indicates a clear shift toward optimism in overall market sentiment. Investors are focusing on corporate resilience rather than short-term inflation risks. The synchronized rise of cyclical value stocks and large-cap growth stocks signals renewed confidence in sustained economic expansion.

The second estimate of Q1 GDP showed the U.S. economy expanded at a solid annualized rate of 2.5%, slightly above initial expectations. Meanwhile, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index increased at an annualized rate of 2.8%, highlighting persistent price pressures domestically. From a macroeconomic perspective, the combination of steady growth and sticky inflation presents a dilemma for policymakers. While strong growth alleviates recession fears, the ongoing resilience of core inflation suggests the Fed must remain vigilant. Until demand cools sufficiently and inflation returns to target levels, higher borrowing costs may persist.

Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran dominated energy headlines, with new diplomatic agreements offering limited stability benefits. Market participants remain alert to developments, as policy frictions involving Middle Eastern oil producers could immediately elevate global oil risk premiums. Ongoing uncertainty keeps commodity traders cautious and threatens to raise energy input costs. Consequently, central banks will need to closely monitor the situation, as renewed energy shocks could feed into consumer inflation and disrupt the normalization of monetary policy.

Last week, following the release of the Beige Book and sticky inflation data, the Fed maintained a cautious stance. Regional reports indicated modest economic expansion but elevated input costs. This evidence was reinforced by core PCE remaining at 2.8%. For policymakers, the coexistence of steady growth and persistent price pressures underscores the need to keep interest rates high longer to cool demand without triggering a downturn.

Looking ahead to next week, focus will be on upcoming labor and inflation data to gauge the Fed’s tightening trajectory. The May non-farm payrolls report and average hourly earnings will provide key insights into the strength of the labor market and wage-driven inflation. Additionally, regional manufacturing indices and global trade data will be important for assessing stagflation risks. Amid these releases, geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East are likely to continue injecting volatility into commodity markets, requiring investors to balance signals of steady growth against stubborn inflation risks. (1)

Dollar Index DXY

Last week, the dollar index weakened from 99.115 to 98.942. This decline reflects waning demand for the dollar globally, as market participants reassess monetary policy expectations. The decline was driven by two main factors: first, increasing expectations of a dovish shift by the Fed; second, improving economic data from other major economies, reducing the defensive demand for the dollar. (2)

U.S. 10-Year and 30-Year Treasury Yields

Last week, U.S. Treasury yields declined across the board, with the 10-year yield dropping to 4.437% and the 30-year yield falling to 4.974%. The bond market’s strength indicates that fixed-income investors see easing long-term inflation pressures. The downward adjustment in yields reflects growing market expectations that current restrictive rates will effectively slow economic activity. (3)

Gold

Last week, gold prices rebounded strongly, closing at $4,538.160. The weakening dollar made dollar-denominated commodities more attractive to overseas buyers, boosting precious metals. Additionally, ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions and geopolitical uncertainties sustained safe-haven demand, providing strong structural support for gold prices. (4)

Cryptocurrency Market Overview

Mainstream Assets

BTC Price

ETH Price

ETH/BTC Ratio

Last week, the overall crypto market was under pressure, with Bitcoin down 4.4%, Ethereum down 4.5%, and the ETH/BTC ratio remaining relatively flat.

Spot Bitcoin ETF experienced net outflows of $1.42 billion, the second-largest weekly outflow on record. The primary driver appears to be a large OTC block trade on May 26 — 29.2 million shares transacted off-exchange at $43.16 per share, totaling approximately $1.26 billion, at a roughly 2.3% discount to the market price at the time. (5)

The ETH ETF also saw net outflows of $241.5 million. Market sentiment worsened further, with the Greed and Fear index dropping from 39 to 29, entering “extreme fear” territory. (6)

Total Market Cap

Crypto Total Market Cap

Crypto Total Market Cap Excluding BTC and ETH

Crypto Total Market Cap Excluding Top 10 Dominance

Last week, total crypto market capitalization declined by 2.9%. However, excluding BTC and ETH, the market rose by 0.6%; excluding the top ten assets by market cap, the broader altcoin market increased by 1.1%, outperforming major coins.

STRC Performance

Last week, STRC recorded $981 million in trading volume, all below face value.

Overall, STRC performed weakly last week, with recent Bitcoin corrections reducing demand for leveraged Bitcoin exposure products. Additionally, post-dividend sell-offs from STRC’s ex-dividend date continued to exert downward pressure.

On the balance sheet side, Strategy recently spent about $1.5 billion repurchasing convertible bonds, with cash reserves reportedly falling from approximately $2.25 billion to $871 million. (7)

Given an annual preferred dividend obligation of about $1.7 billion, current cash reserves can cover roughly six months of dividend payments.

In Bitcoin treasury preferred securities, STRC accounted for 65.4% of total trading volume last week, down from 77% the previous week. The second-largest share was Strive’s SATA, at 22.6%, indicating growing investor interest in alternative Bitcoin yield products.

Investors increasingly compare Strategy’s STRC with Strive’s SATA preferred shares. SATA trades close to face value, with a yield of about 13%, and plans to introduce a daily dividend mechanism. These features make SATA more attractive to yield-seeking investors and may draw funds away from STRC. (8)

Strategy also announced that the dividend rate for STRC in June will remain at 11.50%. Despite calls from some market participants to raise the dividend to 12%, the rate has held steady at 11.50% for four consecutive months.

Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of June 1, 2026

Last week, the top 30 assets averaged a 2% price increase, with XLM and HYPE showing notable gains.

XLM led the rally, surging 83% during the week. The rally was primarily driven by the Stellar Development Foundation’s partnership with DTCC — expected to enable asset tokenization on the Stellar network under DTCC’s regulatory framework by the first half of 2027. (9) This announcement strengthened market expectations for institutional-grade tokenization applications on Stellar, further boosting the ecosystem’s appeal to investors.

HYPE rose 18% last week, supported by sustained institutional interest in Hyperliquid. The existing HYPE-related ETFs launched by Bitwise and 21Shares have seen net inflows exceeding $120 million since listing. Market sentiment was further uplifted by Grayscale’s latest filings — Grayscale Investments submitted its fifth revision for the Hyperliquid staking ETF to the SEC, indicating the ETF plans to hold about 2 million HYPE tokens as initial assets, reinforcing expectations of increased institutional exposure to HYPE. (10)

Additionally, the CFTC approved the first regulated perpetual futures contract in the U.S., validating the underlying perpetual futures model of Hyperliquid, reducing regulatory concerns and boosting institutional participation in decentralized derivatives markets. (11)

Key Developments in the Crypto Industry

BIS Agorá Project: Tokenized Payments Can Settle in Seconds

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released the final report on the Agorá project. Spanning two years and involving seven central banks and over 40 regulated financial institutions, the project demonstrated that once liquidity is locked, cross-border wholesale payments can settle within seconds. The prototype system uses tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to achieve atomic settlement, real-time payment visualization, and incorporates AML, sanctions screening, and fraud detection, all while maintaining a two-tier banking architecture. The next phase will involve live testing, though timelines remain uncertain, with ongoing work needed on liquidity management, cybersecurity, governance, and settlement finality. (11)

CFTC Guidance on Regulated Crypto Perpetual Futures Trading

The CFTC issued new guidance clarifying regulatory expectations for 24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement of crypto perpetual futures, aiming to bring one of the largest crypto derivatives markets under U.S. oversight. The guidance was issued alongside two key developments: approval of Kalshi’s first regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, and providing Coinbase with an independent channel to access the regulated perpetual product market. These measures reflect increasing regulatory acceptance of crypto-native market structures. The CFTC emphasized that, given the digital infrastructure and global liquidity advantages of crypto derivatives, they are particularly suitable for continuous trading, while highlighting compliance requirements around risk management, clearing, leverage, and market supervision. (12)

Paxos Becomes First Crypto Native Firm to Receive SEC Clearing Agency Registration

Paxos Securities Settlement Company (PSSC) received registration as a clearing agency from the SEC, becoming the first and only blockchain-native enterprise authorized to provide clearing and settlement services as a central securities depository. This approval allows Paxos to settle qualified securities on blockchain infrastructure within a regulated framework, supporting same-day or near-instant settlement and reducing capital and operational inefficiencies associated with traditional post-trade systems. (13)

Major Venture Capital Deals

Samsung Invests $408 Million in Upbit Operator Dunamu

Samsung’s subsidiaries — Samsung Securities, Samsung Card, and Samsung SDS — agreed to acquire a combined 4% stake in Dunamu for approximately $408 million. Dunamu operates South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit. The valuation of Dunamu is around $11 billion, amid rising institutional interest in Korea’s digital asset space, with previous investments from Hana Bank and other major financial groups. This deal exemplifies the deepening integration between traditional finance and crypto infrastructure, as major Korean conglomerates actively explore opportunities in digital assets, stablecoins, tokenized securities, and blockchain financial services. (14)

OKX Ventures and KIS Invest $106 Million in South Korea’s Coinone Exchange

OKX Ventures acquired a 19.6% stake in Coinone, South Korea’s leading crypto exchange, for 80B KRW (about $53M), while Korea Investment Securities (KIS) invested an equal amount. Pending regulatory approval, OKX Ventures and KIS will become Coinone’s third-largest shareholders. Coinone is expanding into stablecoins, tokenized securities, and broader digital asset infrastructure, reflecting ongoing convergence between global crypto firms and Korean traditional finance, with increasing competition in regulated markets and tokenized financial services. (15)

Otomato Completes $2 Million Funding to Build On-Chain Portfolio Monitoring Infrastructure

Otomato, an on-chain portfolio monitoring platform, raised $2 million led by Improbable to expand real-time risk monitoring, yield tracking, and smart infrastructure across DeFi protocols. The platform aggregates lending, perpetual contracts, liquidity provision, prediction markets, and other on-chain assets, providing alerts on liquidation risks, funding rate changes, stablecoin de-pegs, governance proposals, and security incidents. Otomato aims to develop a portfolio assistant layer for on-chain users, simplifying multi-chain asset management as DeFi activity becomes more cross-chain and institutionalized. (16)

Venture Market Data

Last week, seven funding deals closed, including three in infrastructure, two in DeFi, and one each in social and data sectors.

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of June 1, 2026

Total disclosed funding reached $521 million last week, with infrastructure leading at $517 million. The largest deal was Dunamu’s $408 million investment.

Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of June 1, 2026

In the first week of June 2026, weekly venture funding declined to $521 million, down 2% from the previous week.