This Week in Digital Finance (06.27.2026)
Bitcoin breaks below $60K for the first time since 2024, Strategy's treasury goes underwater, and Robinhood closes a $2.2B zero-coupon convertible into the selloff
Market Overview
Risk assets sold off hard this week. The mid-June bounce on US-Iran de-escalation had already faded. Bitcoin slid below $60,000 on Thursday, June 25, for the first time since 2024, opening near $60,983 and trading down to roughly $59,300 intraday. Ethereum falling in step from about $1,620 toward the mid-$1,500s. The selling was mechanical as much as macro: spot bitcoin ETFs bled for 6 consecutive weeks. The lone exception was DeFi: AAVE ripped higher on a fresh Standard Chartered initiation with a $3,500 by 2030 target, Aave V4 traction with deposits past $200 million, and USDT deposits flowing back into the protocol, even as the rest of the screen turned red.
DeFi stood alone: AAVE (+30.18%) and SOL (+3.49%) were the only names in the green, while SKY (-14.06%), HOOD (-8.75%) and COIN (-8.70%) lagged, with NVDA (-8.62%) and CRCL (-8.30%) close behind. Unlike last week, AI and semis offered no cover (NVDA -8.62%, QQQ -4.60%) and gold slipped (GLD -3.48%); only the Dow (DIA +0.43%) and Micron (MU -0.15%) finished near flat. The basket averaged -3.10% on the week, median -3.64%.
Today We Highlight:
Bitcoin breaks $60K as spot ETFs bleed for 6th consecutive weeks
Strategy’s treasury sinks roughly $13.3B underwater, MSTR 0.00%↑ hits a 23-month low, and the STRC 0.00%↑ repair job drags on
Robinhood closes an upsized $2.2B zero-coupon convertible, raising cheap capital into the teeth of the selloff
Bitcoin breaks $60K as spot ETFs bleed for 6th consecutive weeks
The headline number is simple: bitcoin traded below $60,000 on Thursday for the first time since 2024.
US crypto ETF flows have flipped from bid to bleed. Net outflows ran a sixth straight week, with roughly $227 million out in the latest week, and the damage runs deeper than the weekly tape: back-to-back record outflow streaks in May and June pulled an estimated $7.2 billion out, IBIT alone shedding about $3.3 billion, and tipped 2026 flows negative on the year for the first time. The 2024-25 institutional buyer has became a seller for now.
Strategy’s treasury goes underwater as the STRC repair drags on
Last week the story was STRC breaking its peg. This week it spilled over into the equity.
MSTR fell to its lowest level in nearly 23 months, with the stock testing the low-to-mid $90s intraday and printing into the $80s on the worst sessions. The reason is arithmetic: Strategy holds 847,363 BTC bought for about $64.10B at an average cost near $75,651 per coin.
With bitcoin around $60K, that treasury is now roughly $13.3B underwater, the first time the core trade has been meaningfully offside since the model was built.
The critics got louder this week, as STRC came under immense pressure (Cash Reserves to USD coverage roughly sits around 9.8 months at point of writing). Peter Schiff escalated his attack, framing the STRC structure as a Ponzi, while CryptoQuant's CEO argued Strategy should halt bitcoin buys outright and rebuild cash. The slide traces back to the company's roughly $1.5 billion convertible-note buyback in May. With a software business that covers only a fraction of more than $1.2 billion in annual preferred-dividend obligations, the funding gap is bridged almost entirely by capital markets (selling ATM shares).
Robinhood closes a $2.2B zero-coupon convertible into the selloff
The contrast of the week: while crypto-native balance sheets delever, Robinhood walked into the convertible market and walked out with $2.2B at a 0.00% coupon. HOOD 0.00%↑ exercised the $200M greenshoe, and closed the upsized deal June 25, with about $290M earmarked for buybacks and $123.2M for capped calls that lift the effective conversion price to $174.42. This effectively push the no-net-dilution threshold to roughly $237.85, or about $304 after the repurchase.
Shares dipped a reflexive 4% on dilution worries, but a zero-coupon convertible is essentially free optionality financing. Robinhood is using it opportunistically rather than out of need: Truist reiterated a Buy with a $100 target, citing record June volumes in equities, options, and prediction markets, with crypto the lone soft spot. Raising long-dated, zero-cost capital into a risk-off tape is a move only platforms with real balance-sheet credibility can pull off right now
Charts of the Week
Prediction Markets continue to hit ATH in trading volume driven by World Cup.
RWA perp volume continue to increase
Other Notable News
The Senate passed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act on June 22, which bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail CBDC through 2030
The DOJ seized infrastructure tied to Huione in a crypto money-laundering action
Binance will suspend most EU services from July 1 after withdrawing its Greek MiCA application on June 24, and is now pursuing a license in France; funds remain withdrawable and ESMA has told unauthorized providers to stop onboarding EU clients
BofA changed its base case to three quarter-point Fed hikes in 2026, with FedWatch pricing a 60.7% chance of a hike by October
Thanks for reading! Stay ahead this week by using the Artemis Terminal to pull the underlying data on any of the stories above (COIN segment revenue and pre-IPO perps volume, spot BTC ETF flows, HYPE fees and buybacks) or pull live numbers straight into your models with =ART() in Excel/Google Sheets.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is produced by Artemis for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any security or digital asset, or an offer to provide advisory services. Artemis and its employees may hold positions in assets discussed. Figures are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of publication; markets move quickly.