Mt. Gox spooks the market 

---

THE WEEK IN MARKETS

Over the last seven days, the price of oil has gone up, US stocks have broadly gone down, and tensions in the Middle East continued to rise, as Iran and Israel traded strikes for the first time since April. The S&P 500 shed 2.5% last week while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 5% after a jarring May jobs report from the US. 

Bitcoin’s price has seen continued decline, competing with the AI and compute narrative, dropping more than 12% over seven days, with Ethereum and Solana seeing even deeper sell-offs. The original crypto dipped below $60K late last week but made up some ground to start the week at ~$63K.

Zcash, the privacy crypto, had its blistering run cut short, plunging almost 50% after an exploit was identified in an AI audit, only to bounce back more than 40% after developers rallied to find a plug. 

The macro environment confused many last week. The US added 172,000 jobs in May, nearly double what economists were expecting. People are working, spending is holding up, and the recession chatter that has been circulating for most of 2026 looks overdone. Now, does the strong labour market give the Federal Reserve reason to hold, even raise rates? Goldman Sachs thinks so: 

“The resilient activity and employment data also lower the ​bar for a rate hike, less because they suggest a ​risk of overheating than because a stronger starting point for the economy reduces the ‌risk ⁠that a hike could end up looking like a costly mistake,” Goldman said in a note.

🔥 WHAT’S UP: Oil | |+3.1% | 5 days  

💧 WHAT’S DOWN: Solana | -18% | 7 days

Data correct as at 08 June 2026, 10h26 GMT.

---

THE BIG READ 

Mt. Gox stirs, markets rumble 

Markets take note when the Mt. Gox estate moves its crypto. Last week again, Mt. Gox moved 10,422 BTC, roughly $739 million out of cold storage, most of it to an unlabelled wallet. Bitcoin, already under pressure, slid further, with analysts pointing to the transfer as one of several reasons for the price floor giving way. For a hack that happened over a decade ago, Mt. Gox has a remarkable ability to sway sentiment.

Here’s the backstory. Starting as early as 2011, hackers quietly compromised Mt. Gox’s private keys began slowly draining Bitcoin from its wallets over several years, transaction by transaction. By the time anyone noticed, 850,000 Bitcoin were gone, leaving Mt. Gox filing for bankruptcy and owing investors a lot of money. A reminder that this was in the very early days of crypto, and modern-day regulated exchanges uphold bank-grade security. Read how Luno keeps your crypto safe.

The repayment process to creditors that followed has taken over a decade, and it’s still not done. In late 2024, the trustee pushed the final deadline back to 31 October 2026, noting that the remaining complex and contested claims couldn’t be resolved at the time. In the years since, every significant wallet movement has caused a stir. The graph below shows Bitcoin market reactions in the following 24 hours every time Mt. Gox has moved a significant amount of Bitcoin out of cold storage.

March 2025: 11,834 BTC reshuffled into new administrative wallets ahead of delayed payouts. 

November 2025: A transfer to an unlabelled wallet was said to have triggered a substantial drop in Bitcoin’s price over the following week. June 2, 2026: Arkham Intelligence data confirmed the withdrawal of 10,422 BTC (~$739 million) from cold storage to a new wallet.

Source: Tradingview and Gemini

*Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

The reason investors break into a cold sweat every time Mt. Gox moves Bitcoin is straightforward. Creditors who have waited over a decade to recover their funds are now sitting on holdings worth multiples of what they originally lost. When that Bitcoin finally hits the market, the question is whether they sell or not. And that uncertainty doesn’t clear until October, when the distribution deadline expires.

---

ZARU is now available on Luno South Africa 

ZARU is a rand-backed stablecoin combining institutional grade infrastructure with real-world utility. You can use ZARU at close to a million merchants in South Africa, and because its value is pegged to the rand, it removes some of the volatility of other crypto assets.

To celebrate ZARU on Luno, you can earn 15% back in Tether Gold on every transaction. That’s R15 in tokenised gold for every R100 you spend with ZARU and Luno Pay. 

Learn more, HERE. 

---

PICTURE THIS 

Past performance is not indicative of future performance. 

The dominant story in markets right now is AI and related compute. Hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are on track to spend over $700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, and that capital is flowing visibly through the market cap table. Four of the top ten global assets by value are tech companies, all riding the same AI buildout cycle. Nvidia remains the centre of that boom, capturing nearly 40% of AI data centre spending, while gold has pulled back sharply from January highs and Bitcoin continues to slow. The chart isn’t just a size comparison, it’s a snapshot of where conviction is sitting right now, and in 2026, conviction seems to be with the infrastructure of intelligence.

🍏 Get exposure to Big Tech leaders on Luno, HERE. 

💰 Gold may have lost some momentum in the past few months, but it’s still considered a key part of a diversified portfolio. Buy gold in token form on Luno, HERE. 

🟠 Bitcoin is still mixing it up with the biggest investments in the world. Get it on Luno, HERE. 

*Tokenised stocks are only available to Luno customers in South Africa and Nigeria. 

---

A note on HTX/Huobi

Following recent updates to the UK sanctions list on HTX/Huobi, we’ve updated our compliance screening to stay fully aligned. If you’re transferring digital assets to Luno, please ensure your source of funds and originating addresses are not connected to any sanctioned entities. Transactions linked to sanctioned addresses may be flagged for review. If your account is affected, our support team is ready to help.

---

QUICK TAKES 

💰 GameStop’s $2B buyback flex 

GameStop’s board just approved a $2 billion share buyback running through June 2029, replacing a plan that dated back to 2019. The timing follows a record first quarter: net income of $389.6 million, or 66 cents per share, up from $44.8 million a year earlier, with revenue rising 14% to $835.3 million. The company is now sitting on roughly $9.7 billion in cash and assets, and shares popped 8% after hours. The twist? GameStop recently raised over $2 billion by selling new shares, so it diluted holders before authorising a buyback of similar size. – Read more

🕹️ Make a move on GameStop on Luno, in your local currency, HERE. 

📉 Bitcoin ETFs hit their longest losing streak 

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have now logged 13 straight days of outflows from May 15 to June 3, the longest run since the funds launched in early 2024. Investors pulled $4.33 billion and 59,351 BTC over that stretch, a sharp turn from April, the strongest inflow month of 2026. The exodus has dragged year-to-date flows back into negative territory. There is a silver lining though: BlackRock’s IBIT remains positive for the year, and lifetime net inflows still sit near $55 billion. Ethereum ETFs are mirroring the mood with 17 straight outflow days. – Read more

🤔 Broadcom’s “miss” that wasn’t 

Broadcom shares slid around 12% after earnings, but the argument doing the rounds is that the market overreacted. The case: Broadcom delivered a solid quarter, with growing revenue, expanding AI business, and healthy cash flow, yet got punished for not beating estimates by enough. Analyst forecasts are assumptions, not facts, and sentiment swings often disconnect from fundamentals. The bigger question is whether the enormous capital flooding into AI infrastructure is generating proportional revenue, a debate that arguably deserves more attention than a few cents of earnings variance. – Read more

🤖 Think Broadcom’s fundamentals still make for a good investment case? Invest on Luno, HERE.

---

TOWN HALL

Source: https://x.com/LynAldenContact/status/2063468505689649298

---

PROBABLY SOMETHING

*Investing in cryptocurrency may result in the loss of capital. This information should not be construed as a solicitation to trade. All opinions, news, research, analysis, prices or other information is provided as general market commentary for information purposes only and is not investment advice or recommendation. Luno always advises you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.