A sharp market sell-off rippled across digital assets, pushing BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF to one of its steepest daily declines since inception, while a new project called Bitcoin Hyper outlined plans to bring Solana’s high-speed virtual machine to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The project says large investors are participating in its token presale, which has raised more than $31 million.
IBIT posts second-worst daily drop amid crypto sell-off
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, recorded its second-worst single-day price decline since launch during the latest market downturn. The fund, which provides direct exposure to bitcoin’s spot price, fell alongside the broader crypto market as risk assets retreated.
IBIT’s moves continue to mirror bitcoin’s volatility, offering regulated access to the asset class for traditional investors while remaining sensitive to sharp swings in the underlying market.
Bitcoin Hyper proposes SVM-powered smart contracts for Bitcoin
Bitcoin Hyper says it is building an execution environment that uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to enable sub-second transaction speeds and smart contracts for the Bitcoin network. SVM is the runtime that powers the Solana blockchain, known for high throughput and low-latency transaction processing.
If successful, the approach would expand Bitcoin’s programmability beyond its native scripting capabilities, potentially supporting a broader set of decentralized applications anchored to Bitcoin. Specific implementation details and security assumptions were not disclosed.
Presale reports over $31M with whale participation
The Bitcoin Hyper team reports that its token presale has raised more than $31 million to fund development, with increased participation from large wallets commonly referred to as “whales.” The project did not provide independent verification of the presale figures.
The initiative arrives as developers explore alternative scaling and interoperability designs for Bitcoin, aiming to combine the network’s settlement assurances with faster execution environments.