weekend

Data from shipping intelligence company Kpler shows that due to tanker attacks and stalled US-Iran negotiations, the traffic of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz significantly decreased over the past weekend.On Saturday, 5 bulk commodity carriers passed through, while no vessels passed on Sunday, a significant decrease compared to 31 vessels the previous weekend.

According to the official announcement, Bitget has added 14 stock spot rTokens including rPDD (Pinduoduo), rABNB (Airbnb), and rSONY (Sony) to support weekend trading. After this update, the number of stock tokens supported for weekend trading on the platform has increased to 93. During the U.S. stock market closure, the platform will generate weekend continuous trading prices based on Friday's closing price, market maker quotes, and market expectations. This feature supports limit orders and take profit/stop loss settings. To prevent abnormal fluctuations, the system has a protection limit of approximately ±20% on weekend limit orders.It is reported that the rTokens identified by the letter r + stock code (for example, rNVDA for NVIDIA) are issued by Reality, a licensed RWA protocol under Bitget, which connects directly to global liquidity pools such as NASDAQ and NYSE through collaboration with compliant broker Alpaca. Its features include: 1:1 reserves of underlying assets held by licensed custodians, stock dividends distributed in token form at a 1:1 ratio, corporate actions such as stock splits and consolidations mapped in real-time, and positions can serve as joint collateral for unified accounts and U-based contracts, allowing users to flexibly manage funds while holding global stock assets.

According to PR Newswire, the publicly listed company Hyperscale Data disclosed that it did not make any sales of its Bitcoin holdings last week. As of the disclosure, the company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Sentinum and Ault Capital Group collectively hold 961.2678 Bitcoins, with a holding value of approximately $62.3 million based on current market prices.In addition, the board of Hyperscale Data is evaluating multiple strategic options aimed at enhancing shareholder value and has initiated a comprehensive strategic review of the company's business. The review will cover areas including: selling or leasing part or all of its data center assets in exchange for cash, bringing in strategic investors, forming joint ventures, or continuing to hold and advance the development of existing assets. The final plan has not yet been determined.

The price of Bitcoin fell below $64,500, erasing weekend gains, and adjusted in sync with U.S. stocks; institutional ETFs saw a net inflow of $865 million last week, indicating that the liquidity remains strong.

According to data from RootData's stock perpetual contract exchange rankings, nearly 30 exchanges that have launched stock perpetual contracts still significantly adhere to the trading rhythm of traditional stock markets: trading volume drops sharply on weekends, and the morning session on Monday warms up as the traditional market approaches recovery, but has not yet returned to the intensity of a full trading day.Comparing trading days with non-trading days, the 24h trading volume of stock perpetual contracts dropped from approximately $39.078 billion to $4.896 billion, a decrease of about 87.5%. However, during the same period, the open interest slightly increased from $10.139 billion to $10.262 billion, indicating that positions have not been withdrawn on a large scale; what has truly decreased is active trading and turnover. A snapshot taken on the morning of Monday, July 27, shows that the 24h trading volume rebounded to $10.617 billion, an increase of about 116.8% compared to Sunday, indicating that market activity is recovering.In terms of liquidity, the weighted market depth (±2%) decreased from approximately $58.92 million to about $47.83 million, a decline of about 18.8%; it rebounded to around $55.68 million on Monday morning, nearing trading day levels. This indicates that the speed of order book recovery is faster than that of actual trading recovery, and market depth has not plummeted as sharply as trading volume.From the performance of exchanges, leading platforms such as Binance, OKX, and Bitget maintained relatively narrow spreads and strong depth on Monday morning; Hyperliquid performed well in rankings, but its trading volume was still below trading day levels; some long-tail platforms still face issues with excessively wide spreads, making it temporarily impossible to assess true liquidity.RootData Research believes that the most prominent value of these stock perpetual contract exchanges is to allow stock risks to be traded, priced, and hedged even on non-trading days of the traditional stock market. The traditional stock market is closed on weekends, with official prices remaining at the previous trading day's closing price, while stock perpetual contract exchanges still have trading, open interest, order books, and spreads on Sundays, indicating that crypto exchanges have broken through the "trading time" limitations of stocks.However, from the current data, they are participating in expected pricing rather than official pricing, making them more suitable for expressing events, emotions, macroeconomic changes, and risk preference shifts on non-trading days. Due to decreased trading volume over the weekend, widened spreads, and some platforms having abnormal data metrics, they currently resemble a "stock pre-opening price discovery layer," having participated in stock pricing but not yet obtaining the primary pricing power of the traditional stock market, nor have they surpassed the liquidity of the traditional stock market.

According to official news, Strategy did not purchase Bitcoin from July 13 to 19, 2026, maintaining a position of 843,775 coins, with a total holding cost of approximately $6.369 billion, and an average price of about $75,476.During the same period, the company sold 2.7323 million shares of MSTR common stock through the ATM program, raising approximately $263.5 million, and did not implement a stock buyback. As of July 19, the company's dollar reserve balance was $3.225 billion, an increase of about $225 million compared to the previous week.

According to the official announcement, Bitget has added 22 US stock tokens (rToken) that support weekend trading, including rMRNA (Moderna), rAMAT (Applied Materials), rORCL (Oracle), and other underlying assets. After this update, the number of stock tokens that the platform supports for weekend trading has increased to 61.During the US stock market's off-hours, the platform will generate weekend continuous trading prices based on Friday's closing price, market maker quotes, and market expectations. This feature supports limit orders and take-profit/stop-loss settings. To prevent abnormal fluctuations, the system has a protection limit of approximately ±20% for weekend limit orders.It is reported that the rTokens, identified by the letter r + stock code (for example, Nvidia is rNVDA), are issued by Reality, a licensed RWA protocol under Bitget, and are directly connected to global liquidity pools such as Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange through collaboration with the compliant broker Alpaca. Their features include: 1:1 reserves of underlying assets held by licensed custodians, stock dividends distributed in token form at a 1:1 ratio, corporate actions such as stock splits and consolidations mirrored in real-time, and positions that can serve as joint collateral for unified accounts and U-based contracts, allowing users to flexibly manage funds while holding global stock assets.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen posted on the X platform, pointing out that the situation in the Middle East changed dramatically this weekend. As the traditional U.S. stock market closed and global traders sought outlets, Bitget's U.S. stock tokens (rToken) served as RWA assets supporting 24/7 trading, absorbing the overflow of trading demand. Data shows that the trading volume of rToken reached ten times that of the previous week, with an increase of about 2.2 times compared to the average of weekends in June; among them, rNVDA, rMU, and rGOOGL ranked in the top three for trading volume, and the weekend trading activity of VIP users on the platform was stronger than the average user.Gracy Chen emphasized that although the absolute trading volume of U.S. stock tokens over the weekend is still in its early stages, the moments of market volatility have highlighted the importance of 24/7 trading.

According to the official announcement, to meet users' demand for round-the-clock trading, Bitget stock spot (rToken) has officially launched weekend trading functionality. The first batch supports 20 popular U.S. stock assets, including rAAPL (Apple), rNVDA (NVIDIA), and rTSLA (Tesla).During the U.S. stock market's off-hours, the platform will generate weekend continuous trading prices based on Friday's closing price, market maker quotes, and market expectations. This feature supports limit orders and take profit/stop loss settings. To prevent abnormal fluctuations, the system has a protection limit of approximately ±20% for weekend limit orders.The rToken, identified by the letter r + stock code (e.g., NVIDIA as rNVDA), is issued by Reality, a licensed RWA protocol under Bitget, and is directly connected to global liquidity pools such as NASDAQ and NYSE through collaboration with compliant broker Alpaca.

The founder of the Liebit Mining Pool (B.TOP), Jiang Zhuoer, stated that Bitcoin has not effectively broken below the strong support of $60,000. The price difference between Coinbase and Binance is narrowing, indicating that the selling volume from U.S. institutions like ETFs is decreasing, and the crypto market may see a rebound over the weekend.In yesterday's news, Jiang Zhuoer announced that he has "bottom-fished" and bought back all ETH positions at $1,645, expecting to start selling after a rebound in 1 to 3 days.

According to official news, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group) has officially launched 24/7 trading for cryptocurrency futures and options. Over the first weekend, a total of more than 7,200 contracts were traded, with a nominal value of approximately $50 million.Bitcoin volatility futures have also been launched simultaneously. Tim McCourt, the Global Head of Equity, FX, and Alternative Products at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, stated that this move meets customer demand for continuous liquidity over the weekend, bridging the gap between traditional regulated venues and the 24/7 nature of cryptocurrencies.

According to official news, Gate will launch a special celebration event for joint earnings from April 24 at 12:00 to May 13 at 12:00 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of 1,000,000 USDT. During the event, users can open exclusive red envelopes and invite friends to register. After friends complete identity verification and designated tasks, both parties can share cash rewards, with a maximum of 100 USDT per instance. The more invitations sent, the more rewards earned, with no cap on individual earnings.In addition, Gate will launch the second phase of the weekend arena battle event from April 24 at 16:00 to April 27 at 16:00 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of 3,348,000 PENGU. During the event, users who invite friends to register and complete a cumulative trading volume of ≥ 200 USDT will be considered valid invitations and unlock multiple rewards. The milestone rewards can be stacked up to a maximum of 7,800 PENGU, and there will also be a popularity ranking reward, with the top 3 able to share an additional 128,000 PENGU. Additionally, invited friends can receive a 260 PENGU newcomer reward after completing tasks.

Bloomberg cited a report from Jefferies LLC stating that a hacker attack over the weekend that siphoned nearly $300 million from a small crypto project, along with the resulting $10 billion fund run at the largest decentralized lending platform, may slow Wall Street's interest in blockchain technology.Andrew Moss, an analyst at Jefferies' digital asset research team, pointed out that banks, asset management companies, and payment institutions have been developing blockchain products similar to the technology systems exploited by North Korean hackers over the past year.While the report believes this incident is unlikely to impact traditional financial markets, it warns that traditional financial institutions may pause and reassess the associated risks before further advancing their blockchain initiatives.

According to Reuters, U.S. President Trump stated that he may go to Islamabad once an agreement is reached, but no decision has been made yet. There may be more negotiations regarding the Iran agreement this weekend.

Ahead of the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran this weekend, oil prices have risen but remain below $100 per barrel. Emmanuel Belostreino, head of global crude oil and geopolitical market data at Kpler, stated, "The outcome of the negotiations, especially whether a viable shipping navigation agreement can be formed, is a key variable in determining whether the current backlog situation can begin to ease."In early European trading, both WTI and Brent crude oil continued to rise, currently reported at $99.7 per barrel and $97.6 per barrel, respectively. Navigation in the Strait of Hormuz remains largely frozen, and supply disruptions keep the market tense. Iran's attacks on Saudi Arabia's main export route (the East-West pipeline) have resulted in a daily reduction of approximately 700,000 barrels in the pipeline's delivery capacity.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that it was previously expected that traditional markets would take 5 to 10 years to migrate to on-chain at scale. However, following the U.S. attacks on Iran and during the global major stock market closures, a large number of investors flocked to crypto platforms to trade tokenized assets, significantly advancing the timeline for the adoption of "on-chain finance." The crypto perpetual contract platform Hyperliquid has become a trading center for real-world assets (RWA) such as crude oil and tokenized gold."During most of Sunday, on-chain finance became the center of the global financial market," data shows that Hyperliquid's total trading volume exceeded $11.5 billion over the weekend. Additionally, the 24-hour trading volume of Tether's tokenized gold product, Tether Gold, surged to over $300 million at one point, and the trading volumes on prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket also saw significant increases.

According to Cointelegraph, former Credit Suisse Chief Investment Officer Iggy Ioppe stated that during the period when CME Group's gold futures closed on Friday at 5:00 PM (Eastern Time) and reopened on Sunday at 6:00 PM, nearly all publicly visible gold price formation occurred in the on-chain market.He pointed out that during this time window, the regulated futures market was paused, and while there was some activity in the over-the-counter (OTC) market in Asia, it was not publicly transparent. Therefore, tokenized gold assets such as PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt) became the only continuously tradable public market."From the perspective of publicly visible price formation, the on-chain market accounted for almost 100% of weekend price discovery." When CME resumes trading, futures prices typically align with the fluctuations that have occurred in the on-chain market.Data shows that the market capitalization of tokenized gold has risen to $4.4 billion, with approximately $2.8 billion added in the past year, an increase of 177%, far exceeding the performance of most spot gold ETFs. The total trading volume for 2025 is about $178 billion, with a peak of over $126 billion in the fourth quarter alone, making it second only to SPDR Gold Shares in terms of trading volume.On Saturday, amid airstrikes by the U.S. against Iran and escalating geopolitical tensions, tokenized gold briefly rose, with XAUt surpassing $5,450 and PAXG nearing $5,536, while Bitcoin and Ethereum fell in tandem.Current major participants include market makers, cross-market liquidity providers, and crypto-native macro traders who use tokenized gold for arbitrage, collateral, hedging, and yield strategies. Some institutions also monitor weekend on-chain gold trends to assess the "gap risk" before CME opens, but they often regard it as a reference signal rather than a direct basis for building positions.

DeFiance Capital founder Arthur posted on platform X, stating that cryptocurrency has now become the preferred short hedge tool for traditional finance in any risk-off events over the weekend, and he feels regret about this.