Bitcoin and Ethereum price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$104,043, a decrease of 0.8 percent in the last 24 hours. The day’s range for the cryptocurrency brought a low of US$103,832 and a high of US$105,218.

Bitcoin price performance, June 18, 2025.

Chart via TradingView.

Bitcoin hovered around US$105,000 on Wednesday morning before pulling back to around US$104,000 in the leadup to the US Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

The crypto market has displayed resilience despite mounting geopolitical tensions, which have been tempered in light of the Senate vote to advance the GENIUS Act. Institutional buying, partly fueled by an influx of corporate treasuries, is helping to support demand amid uncertainty.

Key levels to watch are US$102,000 to US$104,000 as support and US$106,000 as resistance.

A breakout above US$112,000 could trigger a liquidation cascade to US$114,000, while a drop below US$100,000 risks deeper downside toward US$98,000.

Ethereum (ETH) is currently priced at US$2,498.86, a 1.4 percent decrease over the past 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$2.471.24, and it reached a high of US$2,533.07.

Altcoin price update

• Solana (SOL) was priced at US$145.22, down 2.7 percent over 24 hours. SOL experienced a low of US$144.08 and reached a high of US$146.55.

• XRP was trading at US$2.15, a two percent decrease in 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$2.12, and it reached an intraday peak of US$2.16.

• Sui (SUI) was trading at US$2.78, showing a decreaseof 3.5 percent over the past 24 hours. Its lowest valuation was US$2.73 as the markets opened, and it reached an intraday high of US$2.80.

• Cardano (ADA) is priced at US$0.5935, down 4.2 percent in 24 hours. Its lowest valuation on Wednesday was US$0.5908, and its highest valuation was US$0.6052.

Today’s crypto news to know

Senate advances GENIUS Act

In a vote of 68 to 30, the US Senate passed the GENIUS Act, advancing the legislation to the House.

“With this bill, the United States is one step closer to becoming the global leader in crypto,” said Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee from the Senate floor before the Tuesday (June 17) vote.

‘Once the GENIUS Act is law, businesses of all sizes, and Americans across the country will be able to settle payments nearly instantaneously rather than waiting for days or sometimes even weeks,’ he added.

Ubyx platform aims to boost stablecoin adoption

Ubyx, a new stablecoin clearing platform designed to boost stablecoin adoption through face value redemptions, has secured US$10 million in seed funding, according to a company announcement made on Tuesday.

The round was led by Galaxy Ventures, and included participation from Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, VanEck and Paxos among others. Ubyx intends to launch its platform, which will enable regulated banks and fintech companies to redeem stablecoins directly for fiat currency at par value in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Ubyx’s partners include stablecoin issuer Paxos and blockchain firm Ripple.

Ondo Finance launches alliance for on-chain asset adoption

On Tuesday, Ondo Finance introduced the Global Markets Alliance, a collaborative effort to encourage the adoption of on-chain financial assets. Founding members include eight crypto platforms: Solana Foundation, Bitget Wallet, Jupiter Exchange, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, BitGo, Fireblocks, 1inch and Alpaca, with expectations for additional members to join.

Ondo Finance specializes in real-world asset tokenization and recently launched a layer-1 blockchain designed for institutional on-chain assets. The platform provides tokenized treasury products collateralized by US government debt.

Corporate crypto investments exceed US$880 million in two days

Four publicly traded US companies announced a total of US$844 million in cryptocurrency investments on Tuesday, signaling a growing trend of corporations seeking returns through Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Hong Kong-based DDC Enterprise (NYSEAMERICAN:DDC) secured US$528 million via three securities purchase agreements, funding the company will use to acquire 5,000 Bitcoin over the next three years to fulfill with company’s goal of building the ‘world’s most valuable Bitcoin treasury.”

Major investors included Anson Funds and Animoca Brands’ venture capital arm.

Fold Holdings (NASDAQ:FLD), recognized as the first publicly traded Bitcoin financial services firm, secured a US$250 million equity purchase facility. Net proceeds are primarily intended for further Bitcoin acquisitions.

BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSEAMERICAN:BMNR), a firm specializing in Bitcoin mining equipment rentals, announced its purchase of US$16.3 million worth of Bitcoin, utilizing funds from a recent stock offering.

Eyenovia (NASDAQ:EYEN) disclosed a US$50 million private placement to establish a reserve for the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token. It intends to acquire over 1 million HYPE tokens to be staked on Anchorage Digital’s crypto platform.

In Europe, Paris’ Blockchain Group (EPA:ALTBG) expanded its Bitcoin reserves with the acquisition of 182 BTC for approximately US$19.6 million. This purchase increases the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 1,653 BTC and was financed through a series of convertible bond issuances.

Buying continued on Wednesday with the announcement of health services company Prenetics’ (NASDAQ:PRE) US$20 million Bitcoin investment. This news coincided with the appointment of former OKEx COO Andy Cheung to Prenetics’ board of directors, and Tracy Hoyos Lopez, chief of staff of strategic initiatives at Kraken, as an advisor to the company’s Bitcoin strategy.

Crypto-finance integration deepens with collateral expansions

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Coinbase Derivatives and Nodal Clear announced they are expanding their partnership to allow Circle’s USDC stablecoin to be used as collateral in US futures markets. This initiative is anticipated to be the first regulated instance of USDC being used as collateral, with Coinbase Custody Trust acting as the custodian.

The goal of this integration is to encourage wider acceptance of stablecoins within regulated derivatives markets. Pending approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the integration is scheduled to launch in 2026.

Meanwhile, ARK Invest, led by Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood, sold 642,766 shares of USDC issuer Circle (NYSE:CRCL), worth US$96.5 million, over Monday (June 16) and Tuesday.

This occurred as Circle’s stock price declined by almost 12 percent during the same period. This marks ARK’s first divestment of Circle since its explosive NYSE public debut on June 5. Circle’s share price has since recovered, ending the trading day valued at US$199.59, 35 percent above Monday’s opening price of US$147.54.

In other news, Deribit and Crypto.com will now begin accepting BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) tokenized US Treasury fund (BUIDL) as collateral for trading accounts held by institutional and experienced clients. This allows these traders to use a low-volatility, yield-generating asset to back leveraged positions, reducing their margin requirements.

These steps reflect a growing trend toward deeper crypto-finance integration.

New XRP ETFs launch on Toronto Stock Exchange

Three new XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on Wednesday, offering Canadian investors direct exposure to the XRP cryptocurrency.

These new ETFs expand accessibility to digital asset investments for Canadians within a regulated framework.

Harvest Gold (TSXV:HVG) is a Canadian junior explorer focused on advancing a portfolio of gold projects in Quebec’s prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt—one of the world’s most productive gold regions, with over 200 million ounces of historical output. Its Mousseau, Urban Barry, and LaBelle properties are strategically positioned within and near the Urban Barry Greenstone Belt, a rapidly emerging gold camp attracting significant exploration activity and investment from majors such as Gold Fields and Osisko Mining.

The Urban Barry Belt hosts major deposits like Windfall (now owned by Gold Fields) and Bonterra’s Gladiator and Barry, making it a hotspot for gold discovery. In a region increasingly dominated by majors, Harvest Gold offers rare early-stage exposure through three large, independently held land packages with road access, infrastructure, and newly cleared ground—setting the stage for high-impact exploration and potential acquisition.

Harvest Gold is backed by Crescat Capital, a prominent institutional investor with a strong track record of supporting early-stage discoveries. Crescat’s investment was driven by the endorsement of their strategic advisor, Dr. Quinton Hennigh, a globally recognized exploration geologist. His confidence in the company’s land positioning and geological model is a powerful validation of Harvest’s potential.

Company Highlights

• Flagship Mousseau Project: Large-scale, advanced-stage exploration property with multiple confirmed gold-bearing shear zones.
• Tier-one address: All projects located in Quebec’s Urban Barry Greenstone Belt where Gold Fields recently acquired Osisko Mining’s world-class Windfall deposit and much of the rest of the Urban Barry belt.
• Institutional Backing: Crescat Capital, with renowned Advisor, geologist Dr. Quinton Hennigh, owns approximately 19 percent of Harvest Gold.
• Skilled Technical Team: Leadership includes seasoned geologists and executives with proven discovery and development track records.
• Favourable Jurisdiction: Operates in Quebec, a politically stable, mining-friendly province with excellent infrastructure and low exploration costs.
• Strategic Timing: Recent forest fires have unveiled new outcrops, offering rare exploration advantages. Gold is trading at an all-time high.

This Harvest Gold profile is part of a paid investor education campaign.*

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Building beyond hashrate: An infrastructure-driven approach

A report released in June by TheMinerMag, a Bitcoin-mining research firm, shows that the median direct cost of mining is expected to exceed US$70,000 per Bitcoin in the second quarter of this year.

As mentioned, the increasing use of HPC is one way miners are looking to preserve profitability.

HIVE Digital Technologies (TSXV:HIVE,NASDAQ:HIVE), the first public crypto-mining company, is one of the clearest examples of this shift. The company has a history of strategically acquiring efficient hardware, including a 2022 deal with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) for custom Buzzminer application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This expertise now underpins its subsidiary, BUZZ HPC, which provides GPU cloud services and infrastructure for HPC and AI.

Speaking onstage at the Consensus event in Toronto last month, BUZZ HPC President and COO Craig Tavares explained how by taking the core assets used for Bitcoin mining — land and power — the company was able to realize a higher return on investment (ROI) by providing GPU cloud services for HPC workloads.

“The one thing in the market that we’ve seen right now is a desire to consume more power for traditional data centers, and it’s something that we’re trying to solve, currently and then three to five years out — how to access distribution and generation to hit those ROIs efficiently,” he told the audience.

Hosting AI workloads offers higher revenue per kilowatt-hour than Bitcoin mining. Tasks like model training command premium pricing, making them more valuable per unit of energy consumed. Bitcoin mining, on the other hand, generates revenue based on the Bitcoin price and ever-increasing competition.

Bitcoin miners also have an advantage over hyperscalers in the AI infrastructure space. Miners have developed highly efficient and often modular data center designs focused on getting power to compute. Their business model relies on scaling up and down quickly to chase profitability in a volatile market. Dedicated AI data centers are still being built, and much of the existing physical infrastructure isn’t optimized for the demands of modern AI.

He went on to explain how the company’s strategy is framed around long-term adaptability beyond hashrate, built on optionality and infrastructure flexibility. While ASICs, which are used for Bitcoin mining, are not compatible with AI workloads, HIVE’s history of mining Ethereum tokens allowed the company to seamlessly shift its focus, since it already possessed the advanced GPU infrastructure necessary for the expansion. Miners that need to invest in new GPUs are faced with significant capital expenditures and a potentially long wait.

“We’ve been able to build where we have high-profitable business,” Holmes said, adding that this success was largely achieved by bringing in Tavares, who has an extensive background in data centers and telecommunications from his time working with Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Canadian operations. “We (realized that we) needed someone (who) had that unique skill set that was far beyond what our team was doing, so we could really scale.”

However, as Tavares pointed out, Bitcoin miners face additional challenges when pivoting to HPC, including site suitability, demanding power density and the redundancy required of high-quality telecom infrastructure.

The power demands of blockchain and AI have also drawn scrutiny. Tavares and Holmes emphasized their respective companies’ commitments to using 100 percent renewable energy to power their data centers.

“We can deliver green GPUs to the market, and what we’re doing is we’re bridging the gap between AI and sustainability,” Tavares commented. HIVE’s move to Paraguay, which boasts abundant hydroelectric power, has positioned the company to significantly reduce its Bitcoin production cost to under US$50,000 per Bitcoin as it scales to 25 exahashes per second by the end of the year.

Diversifying energy solutions: Exploring off-grid mining opportunities

The appeal of underutilized energy sources is growing fast, and the broader trend of the tech industry exploring diverse energy solutions was the topic of another industry panel at Consensus.

It featured executives from Pow.re, Giga Energy and Soluna (NASDAQ:SLNH).

Key points included cheaper power but higher operational risks, with renewable energy sources like wind and solar offering significant efficiency, but facing availability issues. The conversation turned to the integration of Bitcoin mining with oil and gas operations, exemplified by Crusoe’s agreement to sell its digital flare mitigation business to financial services firm Nydig, a subsidiary of financial services firm Stone Ridge Holdings.

“The really interesting thing about the Stone Ridge story, in my eyes, is that it’s an example of Bitcoin mining being a tool to enhance or unlock more value from the core asset,” said Mario Gutierrez, head of business development at Giga Energy, a company providing infrastructure to companies to use flare gas for Bitcoin mining. He argued that while combined energy and mining operations will grow, the primary driver for Bitcoin-mining growth will shift from maximizing Bitcoin output at a low cost to the value Bitcoin miners create by providing flexibility to the energy grid.

Dipul Patel, Soluna’s CTO, described Bitcoin mining as an ideal consumer of surplus renewable energy.

He highlighted wind farms, which often produce up to twice as much energy as they can distribute, as a prime example. Bitcoin can serve as a ‘beautiful shock absorber,’ providing a consistent demand for excess power.

“(That’s) assuming it works,” he pragmatically added, referencing the complexity of multiparty deals and the sophisticated engineering required to ensure minimal power interruptions.

Soluna co-locates its data centers with renewable power plants to use excess energy for HPC and Bitcoin mining. Its Dorothy 2 project will leverage excess wind energy from farms in Texas for Bitcoin mining and AI applications.

Pow.re’s Ian Descoteaux predicts that miners will mitigate some of these risks by producing their own electricity, which in turn will increase mining profits. In the meantime, Gutierrez said that presenting Bitcoin mining as a solution for energy producers is crucial for building trust and gaining buy in; he added that this approach is most effective when it involves a deep understanding of core operational and financial challenges, such as emissions costs.

Gutierrez further suggested that offering energy producers a direct share of Bitcoin-mining revenue or hashrate can create strong alignment, incentivizing them to lend local resources and expertise to minimize downtime, especially for remote operations.

Investor takeaway

Bitcoin miners find themselves positioned at the intersection of the energy and digital services sectors.

Ultimately, this move signals the evolution of a dynamic and adaptive industry that’s poised to play a vital role in the future of technology and sustainability.

Finlay Minerals (TSXV:FYL,OTCQB:FYMNF) is a Vancouver-based explorer targeting copper, gold, and silver in British Columbia’s prolific Stikine Terrane. With a focus on porphyry and epithermal systems, the company leverages strong geological expertise, strategic partnerships, and disciplined capital use to drive discovery and development.

Finlay Minerals offers a compelling, de-risked exploration opportunity anchored by 2025 earn-in agreements with Freeport-McMoRan, one of the world’s largest copper producers. Freeport is actively funding the advancement of the PIL and ATTY projects in BC’s Toodoggone District, providing a non-dilutive path to unlock value from Finlay’s flagship assets.

With rising copper and gold prices and operations in one of the world’s safest and most resource-rich jurisdictions, Finlay offers investors exposure to significant upside through smart partnerships and disciplined exploration.

Company Highlights

• Strategic Alliance with Freeport-McMoRan: Freeport has committed up to $35 million in exploration spending and $4.1 million in cash payments for an 80 percent interest in Finlay’s PIL and ATTY projects, validating their district-scale potential.
• Dominant Land Position in the Toodoggone District: PIL and ATTY provide direct exposure to one of BC’s most active copper-gold corridors, adjacent to Centerra’s Kemess complex and Amarc-Freeport’s AuRORA discovery.
• Unlocking the Bear Lake Corridor: The SAY and JJB properties offer large-scale exploration potential in an underexplored region analogous to major discoveries like American Eagle’s NAK and Amarc’s DUKE.
• Disciplined Exploration Focus: More than 70 percent of all capital raised has gone directly into the ground, demonstrating Finlay’s capital-efficient approach and scientific rigor.
• Proven Leadership Legacy: Founded by renowned geochemist John J. Barakso and led by a technically adept team with deep experience in BC exploration.

This Finlay Minerals profile is part of a paid investor education campaign.*

Click here to connect with Finlay Minerals (TSXV:FYL) to receive an Investor Presentation