Crypto News Today (July 9): BTC Back Above $63K, AscendEX Exchange Halts Operations, and BNB Chain Reveals New Layer-1

In crypto news today (July 9), Bitcoin has bounced back from yesterday’s pullback, climbing above $63,000 and up +0.5% over the past 24 hours. Liquidations have slowed considerably since yesterday, dropping from over $350M to $282M, with over $183M of that figure coming from long positions, signaling that bulls still haven’t learned their lesson from the past few days.

Yesterday saw a second consecutive day of positive ETF flows for Bitcoin, a metric that is helping the market in its recent rally. Over $265M in BTC was bought via ETFs yesterday, with over $200M of that coming from BlackRock’s IBIT after it sold nearly $10Bn over the past ten sessions.

While the majority of tokens experienced a slight retracement overnight, Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) are two of the more notable projects in the green today, with privacy-focused projects defying the odds, up +5.5% and +2%, respectively.

The Fear & Greed Index is still sitting firmly in ‘Extreme Fear’, but climbing two points from 20/100 to 22/100 today. It is unlikely that the index breaks out of the extreme fear phase until Bitcoin is firmly trading back above $70,000.

Crypto News Today: AscendEX Exchange Halts Operations Due to MiCA and Liquidity Issues

Cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX announced that it has ceased operations as of July 1. The company attributed this decision to regulatory pressures and financial difficulties.

In an official notice, the platform stated that several factors had impacted its operations, including the enforcement of the European Union’s MiCA regulation, which took effect on July 1.

AscendEX does not have the necessary authorization to operate under these new rules. Additionally, the exchange has been facing both financial and operational challenges.

The company also warned that users may not be able to recover the full amount of their crypto assets held on the platform. AscendEX is currently assessing its financial position and considering possible options for its account holders.

Access to accounts is now restricted, available only for limited user offboarding procedures. Automated withdrawals have been paused, and all withdrawal requests will undergo manual review, which may prolong processing times.

Last month, on-chain investigator ZachXBT reported numerous complaints about delayed withdrawals from AscendEX. According to him, users had been waiting several days or even weeks for their withdrawal requests to be processed.

Furthermore, ZachXBT’s analysis of the platform’s hot wallets revealed nearly empty reserves of major assets, including ETH, USDT, USDC, and SOL.

ZachXBT Warning Followed by AscendEX Shutdown Announcement

Centralized crypto exchange AscendEX said it ceased operations on July 1, 2026, with accounts remaining available only for limited exit purposes. All withdrawal requests now require manual review and may be delayed,… pic.twitter.com/GdnWzWt0Q3

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 8, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Join 99Bitcoin’s $1000 USDT Airdrop on ByBit

BNB Chain is Building New Blockchain for AI Trading Agents

In other crypto news today, BNB Chain is developing a new Layer 1 blockchain focused on agentic trading and faster on-chain transactions, and is disclosing its network architecture for the first time.

This new network will integrate into the existing BNB Chain ecosystem, operating alongside BNB Smart Chain, opBNB, and Greenfield.

Planned for the second half of 2026, the network aims for transaction preconfirmation in under 50 milliseconds, striving to provide an experience similar to centralized exchanges while retaining benefits like self-custody, transparency, and finality on the blockchain.

Although centralized exchanges operate in microseconds, BNB Chain believes most users perceive latency in milliseconds, making their target viable for general users.

Key to the new architecture will be TxStream, which eliminates the public mempool by directing transactions to the block leader to reduce latency and hinder front-running tactics such as sandwich attacks. By doing so, attackers are deprived of the opportunity to manipulate pending transactions.

Mid-year is a good time to look back at how far an ecosystem has come.

For @BNBCHAIN, it also marks the start of a much bigger plan – a dedicated network built for AI agents.

The opportunity is already here, with more than 150,000 AI agents across the ecosystem.

And instead of… https://t.co/q0LioHeKdd pic.twitter.com/2kCzCvJ7F7

— Gilmo (@0xgilllee) July 8, 2026