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What to know:

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Altcoin season, a period marked by notable outperformance of ether (ETH) and other alternative cryptocurrencies relative to bitcoin (BTC), may finally be upon us. That's the message from CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index, which has crossed above 50 for the first time since December.

Ether and other layer-1 coins could be standout performers as a result of the passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.S. The Act provides regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance that could draw institutional demand to Ethereum and other layer-1 blockchains that host billions of dollars worth of the tokens.

"Treasuries are looking to ETH and other L1's such as SOL, XRP and ADA to become what BTC is to the likes of Strategy and Metaplanet," Singapore-based QCP Capital said.

Already, companies including SharpLink Gaming and Bitmine Immersion Technologies have said they plan to build ether treasuries in the way Strategy has with bitcoin. Together they hold more than 500,000 ETH. And just today, newly established The Ether Machine said it plans to go public with a 400,000 ETH treasury.

The trend will likely accelerate if U.S. regulators approve BlackRock's plan to add staking to its spot ether ETF. Staking could enhance ether's appeal as an internet bond, prompting some funds to shift from bitcoin ETFs to ether ETFs. Technical charts tied to cross-pairs, such as ETH/BTC and XRP/BTC, are already hinting at big rallies ahead.

Speaking of bitcoin, its momentum has weakened since early last week, leaving prices directionless near $120,000. That's led to a sharp decline in its share of the crypto market.

"The fall in Bitcoin dominance is a major technical and psychological shift, suggesting a structural rotation into altcoins is underway," Valentine Fournier, lead analyst at BRN, said in an email. "This transition is happening in the context of still-strong ETF flows, growing institutional participation, and the absence of any macro headwinds."

Still, on-chain activity continues to paint a bullish picture. According to Glassnode, wallets of all sizes are back in a BTC accumulation mode. "Even >10K BTC whales are participating at levels last seen in Dec 2024. The alignment across wallet sizes suggests broad-based conviction behind the current BTC uptrend," Glassnode said on X.

In key news, a report by Barron's said the U.S. public pension giant OPERS disclosed in its Q2 2025 13F filing that it increased its holdings by 171,441 shares in Palantir and 21,499 shares in bitcoin holder Strategy.

In traditional markets, the yen, a risk-off currency, strengthened after Japan's ruling coalition lost the Upper House Election, leading to political uncertainty. 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

• July 23, 1 p.m.: Hedera (HBAR) mainnet upgrades to version 0.63. The process is expected to take about 40 minutes, during which network users may experience temporary disruptions.
• July 23-24: The Root Network (ROOT) mainnet will undergo a technical upgrade (v11.79.0) affecting NFT ownership data storage, requiring some 24 hours of downtime for NFT-related operations like minting, bridging, transferring and marketplace activity to support improved performance and scalability for large-scale collections.

Macro

• July 21, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases June producer price inflation data.
  • PPI MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. -0.5%
  • PPI YoY Prev. 1.2%
• July 22, 8:30 a.m.: Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell delivers opening remarks at the Integrated Review of the Capital Framework for Large Banks Conference in Washington D.C. Livestream link.
• July 22, 1:00 p.m.: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman speaks on innovation at the same conference. Livestream link.
• Aug. 1, 12:01 a.m.: New U.S. tariffs take effect on imports from trading partners that failed to reach agreements by the July 9 deadline. These increased duties could range from 10% to as high as 70%, impacting a wide range of goods.

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

• July 23: Tesla (TSLA), post-market, $0.42
• July 29: PayPal Holdings (PYPL), pre-market, $1.29
• July 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market, $0.30
• July 31: Coinbase Global (COIN), post-market, $1.35
• July 31: Reddit (RDDT), post-market, $0.19
• Aug. 5: Galaxy Digital (GLXY), pre-market

Governance Votes & Calls

Unlocks

Token Launches