July 9th, 2026

Community is critical for meme coin growth, Anndy Lian notes

Anndy Lian questions the dependence on Binance founder CZ to drive the price of new coins upward, referencing the history of Binance Smart Chain (BSC) memes and the success of projects like Pepe that did not rely on such involvement.

Lian argues there are no shortcuts to achieving sustainable growth in the crypto space and emphasizes the importance of building a strong community.

Lian previously reported the crypto market dropped 1.11% to $2.22 trillion as Bitcoin led selling and correlations with traditional assets increased, according to recent data. He has also noted that Elon Musk’s net worth reached $1.2 trillion, equal to 3% of nominal U.S. GDP, surpassing Rockefeller’s 1.5% in 1937, as stated in an earlier article.

Source: https://tradersunion.com/news/market-voices/show/2624275-community-meme-coin-success/

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July 8th, 2026

Why Bitcoin’s record on chain activity is not the price guarantee you think it is

Bitcoin has retreated by 0.52 per cent over a 24h period, sliding to US$63,593.12 and underperforming a generally flat broader market. This downward movement stems primarily from a firm technical rejection at key resistance zones alongside cooling momentum following a strong weekly rally. Sellers emerged to halt the July advance, which had reached 8.4 per cent before hitting a known technical ceiling near US$65,800. Compounding this technical slowdown is a notable 13.95 per cent drop in 24h trading volume, indicating reduced buying conviction after the market booked four consecutive daily gains last week.

Beyond the immediate price action and cooling technical indicators, underlying demand metrics point to broader institutional hesitation in Western markets. United States spot demand remains structurally subdued, as evidenced by the Coinbase premium remaining negative for over 50 days. This persistent discount suggests that domestic retail and institutional investors are withholding aggressive buy orders, leaving spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund flows highly inconsistent. At the same time, aggregate open interest in Bitcoin futures markets has declined. This reduction in open interest signals that speculative leverage is actively leaving the market rather than expanding, leaving recent price gains vulnerable to pullbacks without a strong institutional bid to support the base.

While the short-term price action remains constrained by these technical ceilings and cooling derivatives markets, the underlying Bitcoin network is experiencing an unprecedented surge in utility. On-chain data indicate that Bitcoin is processing its highest sustained transaction volume in its 17-year history. The network is averaging approximately 670,000 transactions per day throughout 2026, nearly doubling last year’s activity and approaching prior all-time highs. A deeper analysis reveals that recent data indicate the network processes an average of 673,822 transactions per day. This broad-based rebound in usage is characterised by a high volume of small transactions and emerging applications, rather than by large-value transfers alone.

Specific daily metrics confirm the historic scale of this on-chain activity. According to block data, the Bitcoin network processed 862,979 transactions on June 23, 2026, marking the 3rd-busiest single day in the protocol’s history. This explosive activity lifted the daily average for June 2026 to 651,655 transactions, a 90 per cent increase over the June 2025 daily average of 342,866 transactions. Both the median and average daily transaction counts across 2026 now comfortably exceed the full-year totals for 2024 and 2025. This structural shift is driven largely by an increase in smaller transactions, alongside innovative use cases such as Bitcoin non-fungible tokens and timestamping services that write data directly to the blockchain.

This high transaction count introduces a complex dynamic for the ecosystem, as it reflects a diverse mix of traditional value transfers, exchange settlements, whale movements, and newer programmable applications. For everyday users, this elevated activity demands close observation of average fees, mempool sizes, and layer 2 sidechain congestion to determine if the base layer can handle the load. The current market outlook remains neutral to bearish below immediate resistance, though the primary trend hinges on the US$63,619 support level, which aligns with the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci regression. If Bitcoin can defend this support level, it sets up another potential run toward US$65,800, whereas a daily close below this level risks an immediate drop to US$61,377.

The market’s immediate direction is closely tied to broader macroeconomic shocks and sudden geopolitical escalations that are fracturing global investor confidence. Major global financial markets fell sharply as escalating geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran, combined with a steep semiconductor sell-off, broke the record-setting momentum on Wall Street. Following Iran’s targeting of three commercial tankers in the critical Strait of Hormuz, the United States military executed powerful retaliatory airstrikes. Simultaneously, the United States Treasury revoked a vital waiver that had previously allowed Iran to sell crude oil globally, triggering fears of severe supply disruptions and sending global energy benchmarks rocketing upward.

The impact of these energy market disruptions was immediate and volatile across global oil benchmarks. Brent crude surged by over five per cent to breach US$75.70 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 5.3 per cent to finish trading above US$72.20 per barrel. This inflationary energy shock hit equity markets precisely as technology stocks suffered an independent structural rout. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell significantly, led by a 4.65 per cent plunge in the PHLX Semiconductor Index. Investor confidence in long-term market dominance and pricing power evaporated after reports that a Chinese startup, DeepSeek, is independently developing its own artificial intelligence chip architecture, shaking the core growth thesis of established technology giants.

This shift in technology sector sentiment highlights a growing disconnect between blockbuster corporate earnings and loftier investor expectations. Samsung Electronics reported record preliminary quarterly profits, yet its stock still plunged 6.9 per cent in Asian trading, illustrating that market expectations for artificial intelligence build-out metrics have reached unsustainably high levels. The resulting sector pullback forced major tech components lower, with Micron falling 4.7 per cent and SanDisk retreating by 7.3 per cent. These equity losses were exacerbated by macro pressures in fixed-income markets, where the United States 10-Year Treasury yield edged up to 4.556 per cent, compressing stock valuations across high-growth sectors.

Faced with these overlapping pressures, investors are demonstrating severe caution ahead of the afternoon release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes from the June meeting. This policy document represents the very first official communication issued under the leadership of the new Federal Reserve Chairman, Kevin Warsh. Market participants are waiting to see whether Bitcoin can reclaim its 7-day exponential moving average near US$62,702 or if macro comments will force a deeper flush toward lower support levels. I said the same yesterday, too.

The combination of technical resistance, weak spot demand, semiconductor sector anxiety, and escalating energy prices has forced a neutral range consolidation, proving that even record-breaking on-chain utility cannot completely shield digital assets from macro volatility.

Source: https://e27.co/why-bitcoins-record-on-chain-activity-is-not-the-price-guarantee-you-think-it-is-20260708/

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July 8th, 2026

Beyond payments: India aims to architect Indonesia’s digital future

India’s wildly popular digital payments system, which began as a way for people to send money instantly by phone, could help the country turn one of its biggest domestic technology successes into a tool of diplomacy, analysts say.

That opportunity is coming into focus in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, where officials are studying whether India’s low-cost digital systems can be adapted to their own needs.

The talks centre on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s instant payment system launched about a decade ago that has become one of the most visible parts of the country’s digital transformation.

New Delhi has already signed agreements with several nations, including Singapore, to facilitate cross-border payments, but analysts say Jakarta’s interest appears to go further.

According to a report in The Times of India on Monday, Indonesia is looking at India’s broader digital public infrastructure as a possible blueprint for building its own sovereign system. Several Indonesian delegations have also recently visited India to study public policy initiatives as Jakarta seeks to strengthen food security and healthcare services.

Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based adviser to governments on blockchain and information technology, said a successful digital collaboration between India and Indonesia could serve as a “massive proof of concept for the Global South, particularly within Asean”.

“Many developing nations are actively seeking alternatives to expensive, proprietary Western financial networks or heavily centralised systems,” he said.

“By demonstrating that scalable, open-protocol digital ecosystems can be successfully adapted across borders, India and Indonesia are establishing a highly attractive sovereign blueprint for digital transformation.”

Indonesia has formally set a target to become a global digital economic leader by 2045, aligning with its centennial milestone.

Lian cautioned, however, that a collaboration between India and Indonesia would require incorporating safeguards because adopting systems across different regulatory environments carried risks such as data privacy breaches and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

“Second, there is the risk of ‘model mismatch’. India’s solutions are tailored to its specific demographic and bureaucratic realities, which may not translate perfectly to other nations without rigorous localisation,” he added.

Over-reliance on a single foreign partner for core digital infrastructure could also raise long-term “technological sovereignty concerns”, Lian said, urging countries to carefully balance digital efficiency with technological independence.

UPI has anchored a digital revolution in India that has helped bring large sections of its teeming population into a formal economy. Indian nationals can now access a range of welfare programmes through digital infrastructure, including the sharing of medical records.

Lian said India could leverage its digital initiative across Asia as it would enable millions of Indian tourists to make payments when visiting countries such as Indonesia, and also create a financial pipeline for Indian businesses and investors operating in Southeast Asia.

“Geopolitically, this elevates India from a participant in the global digital economy to a primary architect of its infrastructure. This is not merely about payments; it is a vector for exporting India’s broader tech ecosystem,” he said.

India’s digital services have expanded beyond its traditional bread-and-butter IT ones in the last five to six years to include fintech start-ups, cybersecurity firms and other enterprises.

“Beijing will undoubtedly view the India-Indonesia digital alignment as a strategic encroachment on its sphere of technological influence,” Lian said.

“India’s digital diplomacy is undeniably strengthening as it pivots from merely exporting technology to providing comprehensive governance blueprints.”

By sharing foundational digital frameworks like UPI and Aadhaar, a national digital identity base, India could offer peer-tested solutions, he said.

Jamus Lim, an associate professor of economics at the ESSEC Business School, noted that many back-end systems in the region already relied on Indian technical expertise.

“There are natural network effects that will reward first movers that establish the industry standard,” he said, adding that the faster India was able to roll out agreements using its standards, the better its position would be for South-South partnerships and agreements.

Raj Kapoor, president of India Blockchain Alliance, said leveraging its digital public infrastructure had become “arguably India’s most distinctive soft-power asset right now, because it’s cheap to export and it plays well as South-South solidarity”.

“Historically, countries exported infrastructure through roads, ports and power plants. Today, nations increasingly export digital infrastructure. India is emerging as one of the few countries capable of exporting an entire governance,” he said.

India should see collaboration in UPI “not as the destination, but as the opening chapter”, Kapoor said.

“We should use Indonesia as the flagship Asean case study to accelerate parallel talks with Vietnam, the Philippines, and others as first-mover advantage matters in standards-setting.”

Source: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3359736/beyond-payments-india-aims-architect-indonesias-digital-future

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