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What to know:

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering a smidgen under $105,000 having dropped just 1.4% in the past 24 hours as crypto markets balanced the Israel-Iran war with regulatory progress in the U.S.

Tensions in the Middle East are heightening after President Donald Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender”after saying the country’s leader was an “easy target.” Corporate bitcoin buying, however, is underpinning demand, and Senate approval of U.S. stablecoin legislation is seen as a win for the industry.

Trump's words helped raise the perceived odds of the U.S. entering the conflict to 62% on prediction market Polymarket , up from around 50% a day ago. The perceived odds of U.S. military action against Iran before August are at 73%.

“Despite escalating tensions in the Middle East, BTC is yet to show signs of full-blown panic,” analysts at crypto hedge fund QCP Capital wrote. “BTC’s resilient price action appears underpinned by continued institutional accumulation.”

That accumulation is partly driven by corporate bitcoin treasuries. Strategy, for one, has added over 10,000 BTC with funds from the STRD preferred stock offering, and The Blockchain Group said it added 182 BTC this week. Bitcoin rewards firm Fold has secured a $250 million facility to spend on bitcoin, while Mercury Fintech is planning on raising $800 million for a bitcoin treasury.

“The market seems to have rediscovered its footing, particularly after BTC held above the key psychological threshold of $100k despite the initial shock,” QCP’s analysts said. “Crucially, Friday’s modest 3% pullback paled in comparison to April last year, when BTC fell more than 8% amid similar Iran-Israel turmoil.”

Deribit’s BTC Volatility Index (DVOL) is currently around 40.86, down from over 62 in early April.

The Senate's approval of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, the first major piece of crypto legislation to clear the chamber, sends a clear message: U.S. lawmakers are increasingly open to formalizing rules for the industry. Markets interpreted the move as a structural win.

Traders will be watching today’s interest-rate decision from the Federal Reserve for any surprises. According to the CME’s FedWatch tool, markets are nearly certain rates are going to remain unchanged.

That amplifies any fallout from the Iran-Israel conflict, which has now entered the crypto space. The Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex was hacked by a group thought to be linked to Israel just a day after the same group targeted the state-owned Bank Sepah. And in the wider sphere, Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane, or the U.S. intervening would likely lead to a risk asset sell-off.

“It’s wise to reserve judgement until the U.S. open, where most price discovery has been occurring,” said Jake O., an OTC trader at Wintermute. Stay alert!

Grayscale’s New Income-Focused ETFs

Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto-native asset manager, now offers two new income-focused ETFs:

• Grayscale Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (BTCC) seeks to maximize potential income generation, and is designed to serve as a complement to existing Bitcoin ownership.
• Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BPI) seeks to balance upside participation with income generation, and is designed to serve as an alternative to direct Bitcoin ownership.

Through two different approaches to systematic covered call writing on Bitcoin, these two products deliver an alternative income stream for investors that’s less correlated to traditional income-oriented investments.

BTCC and BPI both offer monthly distributions for investors.* See the latest distribution amount on their respective product pages at etfs.grayscale.com

Important Disclosures

*The Funds intend to pay out dividends from net investment income, if any, and distribute any net unrealized capital gains to their shareholders at least annually.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus or summary prospectus with this and other information about the Funds, please call (866)-775-0313 or visit our websites at etfs.grayscale.com/btcc and etfs.grayscale.com/bpi. Read the prospectuses or summary prospectuses carefully before investing.

Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal. There is no guarantee the investment strategy will be successful. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified. The Fund is actively managed and its performance reflects the investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund.

Grayscale Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (“BTCC”) and Grayscale premium Income ETF ("BPI") (collectively, the "Funds") will not invest in digital assets directly. The Funds also will not invest in initial coin offerings. The Funds will, however, have indirect exposure to digital assets by virtue of its investments in derivatives on exchange-traded vehicles that hold digital assets as investments. Because the Funds will not invest directly in any digital assets, they may not track price movements of any digital assets.

BTCC and BPI are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC and Grayscale Advisors, LLC is the adviser. Foreside is not related to GSA or its affiliates.

Crypto:

• June 18: At about 9:28 p.m. IoTeX L1 v2.2.0 hard fork will activate at block 36,893,881. The fork will halve block time to 2.5s and launch System Staking v3.
• June 18: Shares of Purpose Investments' "Purpose XRP ETF" are expected to start trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The ETF will offer Canadian dollar–hedged, Canadian dollar unhedged and U.S. dollar units under the tickers XRPP, XRPP.B and XRPP.U, respectively.
• June 18: Evolve Funds Group launches Evolve XRP ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange under tickers XRP (CAD) and XRP.U (USD), offering direct physical XRP exposure without derivatives or currency hedging.
• June 18, 2025: 3iQ launches the 3iQ XRP ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange under tickers XRPQ (CAD) and XRPQ.U (USD), debuting with a 0% management fee for six months.
• June 20: Proof-of-stake blockchain BlackCoin (BLK) activates SegWit on mainnet, improving security and performance. Nodes must be upgraded to release v26.2.0 before this date. Wallets from 13.2 can be used in 26.2.x.

Macro

• June 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended June 14.
  • Initial Jobless Claims Est. 245K vs. Prev. 248K
• June 18, 2 p.m.: Federal Reserve announces its interest-rate decision. Rates expected to be held at 4.25%-4.50%. Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference follows at 2:30 p.m.
• June 18, 5:30 p.m.: Brazil’s central bank, Banco Central do Brasil, announces its interest-rate decision.
  • Selic Rate Est. 14.75% vs. Prev. 14.75%
• June 19, 7 a.m.: Bank of England (BoE) announces its interest-rate decision.
  • Bank Rate Est. 4.25% vs. Prev. 4.25%
• June 19, 3 p.m.: Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics and Censuses releases Q1 employment data.
  • Unemployment Rate Prev. 6.4%

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

• June 23 (TBC): HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), post-market, $-0.12

Governance Votes & Calls

Unlocks

Token Launches