Plus: Could your 401(k) start buying crypto?

GM. Green apples everywhere, no worms in sight - it’s a good day to take a bite.

🍍 Market update: ETH short squeeze, XRP ATH.

📄 Three major crypto bills passed house.

💰 American 401(k) retirement plans might be able to invest in crypto.

🍋 News drops: Ledger Flex vs. Binance, one of the biggest ETH treasuries + more

🍍 Market flavor today

Crypto Market Cap: $3.90T 1.33% (24H)
Name		Price	24H	7D
	Bitcoin BTC	$118,069.78	-0.46%	0.48%
	Ethereum ETH	$3,583.06	4.85%	20.24%
	XRP XRP	$3.45	7.09%	22.33%
	BNB BNB	$746.30	3.00%	8.32%
	Solana SOL	$178.38	2.33%	7.56%

Ethereum blasted past $3.6K for the first time since January.

And as the Kobeissi Letter pointed out, it’s right in the middle of one of the biggest short squeezes crypto has ever seen.

Here’s what happened:

At the start of July, tons of traders were shorting ETH.

(Quick explainer: shorting = betting the price will drop. You borrow ETH, sell it now, and hope to buy it back cheaper later so you can keep the difference. But if the price goes up instead, you lose money.)

But at the same time, big dawgs like Ethereum treasury companies and ETFs were steadily buying ETH.

Matter of fact, ETFs just had their best two days ever - $1.32B in inflows.

Now, here’s the problem for the shorts: because demand was steadily building, ETH started increasing. And since they were betting against it, they started losing money.

On top of that, many of those shorts were using leverage (basically borrowing even more money to make their bets bigger), so their losses added up even faster.

Eventually, the losses got so big that exchanges automatically closed their positions - something called liquidation.

To close out, these traders had to buy ETH to pay back what they borrowed.

But here’s the thing: when a bunch of short sellers are forced to buy at the same time, it pushes the price even higher.

And that higher price forces even more shorts to close, which increases the price more.

That’s the vicious cycle known as a short squeeze- and we’re seeing it play out in full force right now.

This cycle has already pumped ETH 40%+ this month and added over $130B to its market cap.

Billions in shorts have already been liquidated, and if ETH climbs another ~10%, another billion dollars in short positions could be wiped out.

If this keeps up, $4K ETH isn’t far off, Kobeissi says.

And ETH isn’t the only altcoin having a moment.

XRP set a new all-time high above $3.60 today, and its market cap topped $200B for the first time ever.

All this altcoin action pushed the entire crypto market past the $4T level - another all-time record.

But why are the vibes soo good?

To be continued...

🥝 Memecoin harvest

If you thought today would be normal, wait until you see what $POO did

Data as of 07:45 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

🍳 What's cooking in Washington

... to be continued right now.

Basically, crypto’s ripping because of some updates out of Washington.

And…

1/ Crypto bills passed the House

The US House of Representatives approved three major crypto bills:

👉 GENIUS Act

Passed: 307-122.

This bill finally sets national standards for stablecoins - like audits, full dollar backing, and licenses.

Stablecoins are a massive part of crypto, with around ~$260B in circulation - and this bill is meant to make that huge market safer and more trustworthy for everyone.

(We already broke down the bill in more detail + explained why some people don't like it here.)

It just needs Trump’s signature now - and that’s basically a done deal, since he’s openly supported it.

👉 CLARITY Act

Passed: 294-134.

This one finally settles the war between the SEC and CFTC over who regulater crypto.

It draws a clear line between what counts as a security (SEC) and what counts as a commodity (CFTC).

(More details on that here.)

This one still needs to pass the Senate. If the Senate changes anything, both the House and the Senate will need to agree on the same text before it goes to the President.

👉 Anti‑CBDC Act

Passed: 219-210.

This act prohibits the Fed from launching a retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which critics see as a surveillance tool since it could let the government track your every transaction.

It also heads to the Senate now.

And to help it pass, House leaders attached it to the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Why? Because the NDAA always passes. Big brain move.

2/ 401(k) + crypto

Rumor has it that Trump’s gonna sign an executive order that could let American 401(k) retirement plans invest in crypto.

Which would be one of the most bullish things that's happened for crypto.

For context:

• Total US 401(k) assets: $8.7 trillion;

• Total crypto market cap: $3.9 trillion.

That means retirement accounts are worth more than 2× the entire crypto market.

Even if a slice of that moves into crypto... it's gonna be bonkers.

Overall, crypto's getting safer, clearer, and more accessible.

If that’s not a giant green flag for the future of this industry… I might be colorblind, idk.

🍋 News drops

🤔 Ledger Flex vs. Binance: two big names, but which one's better? Check our crypto wallet comparison so you don't have to guess.

💰 SharpLink Gaming is building one of the biggest Ethereum treasuries. They got approval to sell up to $6M in company stock - and most of that is going into ETH.

👀 On that same topic, BTC Digital is ditching Bitcoin for Ethereum. They’ve already bought $1M of ETH and will convert all their Bitcoin holdings into ETH.

🐙 Kraken launched futures trading for US users on a fully regulated platform. Through Kraken Derivatives US, Americans can now trade Bitcoin and Ethereum futures listed on the CME.

🍌 Juicy memes