Trump’s White House comeback in 2025 has triggered fresh tension on the global stage, and BRICS isn’t wasting the opportunity. The bloc—originally Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—is using the power void left by the US president’s isolationist push to regroup and flex. According to Bloomberg, leaders of the expanded group, which now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the UAE, are meeting this weekend in Rio de Janeiro, hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to finalize a joint statement condemning “unjustified unilateral protectionist measures” and the “indiscriminate raising” of tariffs. That language won’t name the US directly, but the timing says enough. The statement is scheduled just before Trump’s new trade levies hit on July 9, and the bloc clearly isn’t letting it slide. These tariffs, warned Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa’s lead negotiator, “are not productive. They are not good for the world economy. They are not good for development.” As Trump pulls the US out of global trade deals and burns alliances, BRICS is trying to claim the diplomatic space he’s leaving behind. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said they’re working to “strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership and safeguard multilateralism.” BRICS expands its reach while dodging conflict Even with this new push, the bloc still can’t pretend to be a unified force. Xi Jinping is skipping the summit, despite attending a state visit in Brasilia last year and being expected at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil later. Vladimir Putin also won’t attend. If he did, Brazil would be obligated to arrest him due to an active international warrant for alleged war crimes tied to Ukraine. The original BRICS group was formed in 2009 to give large emerging economies more say in a US-led world. Since then, they’ve expanded fast. Adding five new members means the bloc now represents about 40% of the world’s GDP and half the global population. But that growth has come at the cost of clarity. These countries don’t all want the same thing, and they sure don’t agree on the same issues. One of the most sensitive topics is war. Delegates involved in talks say Russia and China are blocking efforts to add any strong reference to ongoing conflicts. Egypt, meanwhile, is pushing hard to include peace and security language focused on its border crisis in Gaza. No one’s budging. Trade climbs while rifts deepen Trade between the five original BRICS nations has jumped 40% since 2021, now totaling $740 billion a year, based on International Monetary Fund figures. That rise comes as pressure from Trump’s policies forces countries to find alternate trade routes. Two Brazilian officials said that his tariffs are giving member states a reason to come together, at least for now, to build new partnerships and collective strategies. One of those efforts is climate finance. For the first time, BRICS is discussing how to fund environmental initiatives among its members. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement years ago, leaving room for other powers to step up. China is using the chance to position itself as a more consistent partner. Beijing has already held climate talks with Brazil and Indonesia ahead of the UN annual climate summit. India also seems ready to fall in line. A government official familiar with the discussions said Narendra Modi isn’t expecting any obstacles to a joint statement. After the Rio meeting, Modi will head to Brasilia for a state visit. Lula is also hosting Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, packing his schedule with symbolic diplomacy. Still, the old divides inside BRICS haven’t gone anywhere. Egypt and Ethiopia refused to back South Africa’s bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, which used to be one of the few things the bloc agreed on. There’s also lingering rivalry between China and India. Both want to lead BRICS and speak for the Global South. With Modi taking over the BRICS presidency in 2026, just three years after Xi skipped the G-20 in India, tensions between them are only growing. If Xi snubs the bloc again, it’ll raise more questions about whether BRICS is serious or just a cute little logo. Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot
Crypto company Circle ripped through the New York Stock Exchange on June 5, launching what has become the loudest comeback for tech IPOs since the 2021 peak. Backed by Accel, Breyer Capital, and General Catalyst, Circle’s stock opened strong, then exploded. Now it’s up six times its IPO price, sitting on a $42 billion market cap. That rally shoved three years of frozen IPO dreams back onto the table. This surge didn’t happen in isolation. Halfway into June, the US Senate passed the GENIUS Act , laying out a federal rulebook for stablecoins tied to the dollar. That legislation sent Circle’s price into orbit. Accel, Breyer, and General Catalyst, even after trimming a bit of their holdings, now control $8 billion in Circle stock. VCs finally get exits after brutal dry spell Tech IPOs slammed to a halt in early 2022. Inflation climbed, rates rose, and deals vanished as the US and Europe clamped down harder on corporate takeovers. Big buyers backed off. That’s when venture capital firms got stuck holding onto companies with no clean exits. They’ve waited ever since. But now, in the first half of 2025, that freeze is finally starting to crack. June alone saw five tech IPOs, more than double the monthly pace since January. The boost didn’t come from just one name. CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure company, went public in March, did nothing at first, then jumped 170% in May and another 47% in June. Eric Hippeau, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, said the change is overdue. “It’s refreshing and something that we’ve been waiting for for a long time,” Eric said. “I’m not sure that we are confident that this can be a sustained trend yet, but it’s been very encouraging.” The last good year for IPOs was 2021. Back then, 155 venture-backed companies in the US pulled in over $60 billion. The next year? Just 13 IPOs. Then came 18 in 2023, and 30 last year. Combined, they didn’t even reach $14 billion, based on data from Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida. The slowdown came straight after the Federal Reserve launched an aggressive rate hike campaign to beat down inflation. It worked, but it crushed the IPO market. Major firms prepare for public debuts while others stay private Some smaller IPOs did manage to sneak through. Hinge Health is valued at $3.5 billion, Omada Health around $1 billion, Etoro passed $5 billion, and Chime Financial is just under $11.5 billion. But none of them matched Circle’s scale or speed. Omada’s stock even fell below its offering price. Some of the biggest names in tech haven’t budged. SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks are still private. OpenAI and Anthropic keep grabbing huge checks but aren’t showing any signs of going public. Still, venture firms say plenty of others are waiting in line. Rick Heitzmann, partner at FirstMark, said, “The IPO market is starting to open and the VC world is cautiously optimistic. We are preparing companies for the next wave of public offerings.” While VCs wait, some are cashing out through secondary sales, a way to dump shares to new investors before the IPO. Others are banking on strategic moves—like the one by Mark Zuckerberg last month. In June, Meta spent $14 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI. It wasn’t a regular deal. Meta scooped up the company’s founder Alexandr Wang and a few key engineers. That deal cleared out half the shares held by early investors, giving them a chance to cash in now and maybe again later. Accel, who led Scale AI’s Series A in 2017, could walk away with over $2.5 billion. Index Ventures joined the Series B in 2018, and Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, ran the Series C in 2019, when the company was already worth over $1 billion. There’s hope that rate cuts might come next. But the Fed hasn’t committed. There’s also talk between US exchanges and the SEC about loosening IPO rules, but nothing official has been announced. Last week, Reuters reported that these discussions are meant to make public offerings more appealing again. Even so, some IPOs are on pause. Klarna and StubHub postponed their listings in April because of tariff concerns and geopolitical risks. Neither company has given a new timeline. But for now, it’s clear that the dry years are fading. “There’s starting to be kind of light at the end of the tunnel,” said Eric from Lerer Hippeau. That light started with crypto’s Circle. Cryptopolitan Academy: Tired of market swings? Learn how DeFi can help you build steady passive income. Register Now
A key player in the Telegram-linked The Open Network (TON) crypto ecosystem just hit a $1 billion valuation with its latest funding round.
XRP’s recent rally to $2.30 has been followed by a cooling-off period , with the price falling back to $2.18 after slipping below the short-lived $2.25 support. Although this pullback might raise concern, it comes on the back of a week-long steady increase that took XRP from $1.93 early last week back to the $2.33 resistance level that has held firm in the past 30 days. Crypto analyst CasiTrades shared an updated outlook with a chart to show how a test of the consolidation zone between $2.18 and $2.16 could determine whether XRP reclaims its bullish momentum to $3 or enters into a deeper reset. $2.16–$2.18 Zone Determines XRP’s Direction According to CasiTrades, who posted her technical analysis on the social media platform X, XRP’s recent retest around $2.16–$2.18 is not yet a breakdown, but it marks a defining moment. After reaching $2.30 resistance, the price wasn’t able to hold the $2.25 support level. Instead, it pulled back to retest. Notably, this zone was previously the top of a major consolidation structure, and holding above it would suggest that XRP is a simple backfill structure after a breakout. This is a very common pattern where a crypto price rejects a key resistance, retests the initial breakout zone, and resumes the trend if momentum holds. In the analyst’s view, the market needs to respect this range to confirm that XRP is still in breakout mode. The importance of this level is also echoed in the chart shared by the analyst, where a rising wedge intersects with the highlighted horizontal support at $2.1688 around the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement level. On the other hand, a failure to hold would shift the outlook drastically from a bullish perspective . As noted by the analyst, if the altcoin fails to hold above $2.16, it could initiate a pullback toward $1.90 and potentially invalidate the bullish setup that has been building over the past week. RSI Divergence Points To Higher Chance Of Rebound One of the early encouraging signs for XRP bulls is in the Relative Strength Index (RSI) , which has been diverging from price. This is an excellent signal of seller exhaustion, which supports the analyst’s claim that the current move could be more of a cooldown than another crash to $1.90. CasiTrades believes XRP would be ready for its next extension wave if bulls can defend the $2.16 to $2.18 range and reclaim $2.25. The price targets in view are $2.69 and $3.04, both based on Fibonacci levels. The first resistance level is at $2.3027 around the 0.618 Fibonacci extension. This price level is also a milestone for confirming the strength of the rally before a broader move to $3 and possibly above. Interestingly, the altcoin’s price action in the past 12 hours has seen it already reclaiming bullish momentum after bouncing off an intraday low of $2.17. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.27, up by 3.7% in the past 24 hours. This shows that buyers are already working to flip the $2.25 price level.
Altcoin investors are closely watching the markets as Q3 2025 kicks off with strong catalysts across major blockchains. Among the top altcoins to buy now, MAGACOIN FINANCE is quickly becoming investor favourite alongside heavyweights like Bitcoin, Solana, and Stellar. As Stellar’s DeFi market continues to face uncertainty, MAGACOIN FINANCE Chapter 1 gains attention from Solana and Bitcoin traders. As capital rotates from older large-cap plays into newer, narrative-driven projects, MAGACOIN FINANCE is capturing investors with its capped supply, grassroots political story, and clear roadmap — qualities that are becoming harder to find in today’s meme-heavy market. Why MAGACOIN FINANCE Chapter 1 is Drawing Attention MAGACOIN FINANCE is one of the most talked-about altcoins of 2025. It sits at the top of many analysts’ watchlists because it uniquely blends meme coin energy with political branding and actual governance. Every stage of its presale sold out faster than forecasted, reflecting growing trust in its third-party audited contracts and fixed supply. Unlike typical meme tokens, MAGACOIN FINANCE plans to offer real tools for holders and a decentralized political community, giving it staying power beyond speculative hype. Early investors compare it to Dogecoin or Shiba Inu but with a critical difference: MAGACOIN FINANCE has a clear path for utility and governance, not just viral appeal. That makes it an attractive option for traders seeking explosive narratives with a foundation for long-term growth. MAGACOIN FINANCE vs Stellar: Big Partnerships but Unclear DeFi Path Stellar (XLM) has had a strong quarter with Mastercard integrating Stellar into its Crypto Credential framework and PayPal preparing to launch PYUSD stablecoin on Stellar. XLM’s price may surge to $1 if it continues to gain strong buying demand in Q3 and Q4. However, XLM’s reversal might However, despite new smart contract upgrades under Protocol 23, Stellar’s role in DeFi remains uncertain, leading some liquidity to chase higher-potential narratives like MAGACOIN FINANCE. Traders seeking clearer governance and capped tokenomics find MAGACOIN’s model appealing by comparison. MAGACOIN FINANCE vs Solana & Bitcoin: Major Momentum vs Early-Stage Potential Solana and Bitcoin dominate the market this quarter. Solana’s new U.S. ETF, booming DeFi volumes over $275 billion last week, and a 156% YTD stablecoin surge cement its leadership, though SOL now struggles around resistance channels. Bitcoin, meanwhile, hovers with record ETF inflows and U.S. reserve plans pushing dominance past 65%. But while these giants attract institutional money, traders chasing bigger multiples are turning to MAGACOIN FINANCE. Its early-stage launch, strict capped supply, and political meme narrative make it a prime candidate for outsized returns — offering the kind of fresh upside Bitcoin and Solana may no longer match this cycle. Final Thoughts Bitcoin continues to dominate with ETF-driven demand and a robust macro story. Solana is still the leader in DeFi and stablecoins, while Stellar’s big partnerships show promise but also raise questions on long-term DeFi traction. For investors chasing the next big meme-political narrative, MAGACOIN FINANCE stands out. It’s a top choice among investors as it combines viral energy with fixed supply, external audits, and real community governance, giving early backers a rare shot at serious upside. As traders search for the top altcoins to buy now, MAGACOIN FINANCE is quickly climbing to the top of watchlists and its chapter 1 is drawing major attention. To learn more about MAGACOIN FINANCE, visit: Website: https://magacoinfinance.com Twitter/X: https://x.com/magacoinfinance Telegram: https://t.me/magacoinfinance Continue Reading: 🔄 MAGACOIN FINANCE Chapter 1 Draws Solana & Bitcoin Traders Amid Uncertainty Around Stellar’s DeFi Adoption
Long‑term holders of Bitcoin may need to see a fresh high around $140,000 before they enjoy the same kind of profits they saw earlier this cycle. Related Reading: Bitcoin Holds Steady Above $107K As US Senate Clears $4.5T Spending Bill According to CryptoQuant, that price point lines up with past peaks in realized gains for those who have kept their coins untouched for at least six months. ‘Market Magnet’ Theory CryptoQuant used the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio to track how deep in profit holders are right now. Based on reports, the average realized profit for long‑term holders stands at about 220%. That sounds healthy. But in March and December 2024, holders were sitting on roughly 300% and 350% gains, respectively. The gap between today’s 220% and those earlier highs is what Darkfost, a CryptoQuant contributor, calls a form of “market magnet.” Many are calling for $140,000 BTC so that unrealized profits match the cycle’s top levels. Profit‑Taking Trends Long‑term investors have been selling as Bitcoin flirts with new highs. Recent data shows that these holders have driven much of the selling pressure in the past few weeks. The average cost basis for this group — the realized price — is near $33,800. That means anyone buying before six months ago would need Bitcoin to reach $33,800 just to break even. And to hit the profit levels of March and December 2024, BTC must climb to $140,000. This dynamic pushes some traders to lock in gains early, while others hold on for bigger moves. Super Majority Still In The Green Based on reports, a super majority of Bitcoin investors are sitting on unrealized profits worth a combined $2.5 trillion. That number reflects the overall strength of the market’s recent rally. Even so, many investors remain confident that fresh buying can soak up any waves of profit‑taking. The current phase feels like a pause. Buyers and sellers are sizing each other up. The question now is whether demand will pick up enough to drive that magnet‑level price. Related Reading: Insane Or Insightful? VC Firm Says XRP Could Reach Nearly $9,000 In Just 5 Years Cycle Outlook And Next Steps Analysts said that Bitcoin looks ready for a post‑breakout retest after breaking a multi‑week downtrend that began in mid‑May. They added that the bull run might only have several months left before a final surge and then a change in trend. If this view holds, that final push could be the moment when BTC nears or even hits $140,000. After that, history suggests a sharp peak and then a cool-down. Featured image from Imagen, chart from TradingView
Ilya Sutskever, the pioneering mind behind OpenAI’s Superalignment efforts, has officially become the chief executive of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the startup he co ‑founded just last year. His move follows the departure of Daniel Gross, until recently SSI’s acting CEO, who was scooped up by Meta Platforms to lead its burgeoning AI products arm. In a post on the X platform , Sutskever revealed that Gross’ time with the startup has been “winding down,” adding that his last day was June 29. Sutskever also said that SSI co-founder Daniel Levy will now serve as president, and the company’s technical team will continue to report to Sutskever. Sutskever says SSI to remain focused on building safe superintelligence Meta’s interest in SSI went beyond hiring. Insiders say the social‑media titan also explored buying out the fledgling company outright, aiming to fold its advanced research into Meta Superintelligence Labs. Those overtures, however, were rebuffed by Sutskever and his team, who’ve insisted on preserving SSI’s independence. “You might’ve heard rumours of offers to acquire us. We’re honoured but focused on finishing what we started,” Sutskever wrote on X. “We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence.” Sutskever. Last year, SSI secured a staggering US$1 billion in funding to push toward AI that safely surpasses human intellect. Meta isn’t alone in dangling generous compensation to lure AI talent. Across Silicon Valley and beyond, tech giants are rolling out seven‑figure equity grants and hefty salaries to convince star players like Gross to jump ship. In Gross’s case, Meta’s offer reportedly trumped SSI’s in‑house package, prompting his exit on June 29. Despite this blow, SSI’s co‑founder Daniel Levy has stepped in as president, and the core engineering squad continues reporting to Sutskever. Firms are on a race to lead AI’s next wave The scramble for top minds comes as companies jockey for position in what many see as the next computing revolution. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spearheaded an AI hiring spree, including a US$14 billion investment in Scale AI that brought founder Alexandr Wang and several key engineers into its fold. Meanwhile, setbacks with Meta’s Llama 4 model and the defection of leading researchers have spurred Zuckerberg to unify efforts under Meta Superintelligence Labs, now co‑headed by Wang and ex‑GitHub boss Nat Friedman. Daniel Gross is not new to high‑stakes exits. His previous startup, Cue, was snapped up by Apple in 2013 for its predictive‑search tech, after which he took a director role overseeing machine learning there. At Meta, he will apply those skills to accelerate AI products ranging from recommendation engines to generative models. Gross has yet to comment publicly on his departure from SSI. For Sutskever, the switch to CEO cements his long‑term commitment to SSI’s mission. Having co‑founded OpenAI in 2015 and co‑led its Superalignment team, he’s seen both the promise and pitfalls of rapid AI progress. Under his direction, SSI aims to scale compute resources, refine safety protocols, and ultimately deliver systems that can reason and self‑improve beyond human capability. With Gross now at Meta and Levy assuming the presidency of SSI, the two camps will continue competitive pursuits. Yet Sutskever’s public vow to keep SSI independent suggests a company confident in its path. As the AI talent war escalates, his dual role as chief scientist and CEO could prove pivotal in steering safe superintelligence toward reality. Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot
Ildar Ilham, founder of WhiteRock Finance, has been detained in the UAE amid allegations of a $30 million fraud linked to the ZKasino platform. The arrest follows a broader investigation
WhiteRock Finance founder Ildar Ilham was reportedly detained in the UAE more than a year after Dutch authorities announced an arrest linked to ZKasino.
The summer heat is taking a toll on U.S.-based Bitcoin mining operations, with multiple public miners reporting lower realized hashrates in June due to curtailments to avoid high power costs and grid penalties. This article is from Theminermag, a trade publication for the cryptocurrency mining industry, focusing on the latest news and research on institutional