Cryptocurrency markets entered June with a decline, as continued hostilities between the United States and Iran stifled risk appetite and failed to ease regional tensions. The CoinDesk 20 Index lost 2 percent in early trading, while both bitcoin and ether dropped about 1 percent.
Initial market snapshot
Bitcoin traded at $72,700, remaining in negative territory for six of the past seven days. After sliding 3.5 percent in May, bitcoin’s May performance lagged its historical average rise of 7.4 percent, according to Coinglass data. Spot bitcoin ETFs saw 10 consecutive days of net outflows, with about $2.97 billion leaving the sector overall.
The CoinDesk DeFi Select Index, focused on decentralized finance, was among the weakest-performing metrics of the day, declining by 2.6 percent. All six of its listed assets fell; Ondo Finance’s ONDO token lost 2.8 percent, and has dropped a total of 17 percent since the unexpected death of founder Nathan Allman last week.
By contrast, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token stood out, climbing 1.26 percent on the day to reach a new five-day high of $73.94. The surge was reportedly driven by fresh capital flowing into newly launched token-based ETFs that began trading last month.
Limited optimism in derivatives markets
Futures on US stock market indices presented a more balanced picture. Micro contracts for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose by approximately 0.2 percent. Bitcoin’s open interest remained stable at $19.5 billion, little changed from last week.
Annualized funding rates across platforms stayed positive, ranging from 0 to 10 percent. The three-month annualized basis difference increased from 2.2 to 2.8 percent. The options segment was modestly bullish, with call volumes making up 61 percent of activity—outpacing puts at 39 percent in the last day.
Coinglass data revealed that $282 million in liquidations occurred over 24 hours, split 60/40 between long and short positions. The largest liquidations were $59 million in ETH and $48 million in BTC.
The same data showed that $72,280 was a critical BTC threshold on Binance’s liquidation heatmap in the event of further decline. Additionally, short-term implied volatility rose from multi-month lows to 37, hinting that the market’s recent tight price range may begin to break.
XLM rallies sharply
The most eye-catching move of the day came from Stellar’s XLM token, which soared 40.4 percent in 24 hours to $0.2862 and pushed its market capitalization above $9.6 billion. This jump followed an announcement on May 27 that Wall Street clearing giant DTCC will connect its tokenized securities platform to Stellar’s network in the first half of 2027.
Stellar is an open-source blockchain network developed for cross-border payments and asset transfers. The DTCC, a critical institution in the US financial system, is widely recognized for its pivotal role in clearing and settlement infrastructure and its ability to handle enormous volumes of securities transactions.
Glossary: The DTCC is a US-based infrastructure organization that plays a central role in capital markets for clearing, settlement, and custody processes. Tokenization refers to creating a digital blockchain-based representation of traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, or Treasury notes. A multi-chain tokenization strategy means these assets are designed to operate across more than one blockchain.
With this agreement, Stellar became the first public blockchain selected for DTCC’s multi-chain tokenization strategy. According to Coinglass, open interest in XLM perpetual futures rose 10.9 percent to reach approximately $361 million, while daily spot trading volume surged 34 percent to $2.3 billion. This points to demand-driven movement rather than low liquidity.
Price action also broke above a downward channel that had weighed on the token since late last year. The rally began near long-term support at $0.14 and clearly surpassed resistance levels at $0.20 and $0.26. Given the DTCC oversees more than $114 trillion in assets and processes roughly $2.5 quadrillion in securities transactions annually, Stellar’s selection could mark a significant step in moving tokenized stocks, ETFs, and US Treasuries onto a public blockchain.
