SOPH, the native token of the entertainment-focused Layer 2 network Sophon, saw a strong rally today after getting listed on South Korea’s major crypto exchange, Bithumb.

According to data from CoinGecko, Sophon (SOPH), the native token of the entertainment-focused Layer 2 network Sophon rallied as high as 445 ot an intraday high of $0.072 on June 3 Asian time while its market cap shot up to $138.5 million.

SOPH rallied in a high-volume trading environment, with data showing its daily trading volume surged by 236% over the past 24 hours. As of now, the altcoin has a circulating supply of 2 billion tokens out of a total supply of 10 billion SOPH tokens.

The key driver behind today’s gains appears to be its listing on Bithumb, which went live on June 2. As one of the largest and most influential exchanges in South Korea, a Bithumb listing often sparks major hype, bringing in a flood of new investors looking to ride the momentum.

However, that’s not the only catalyst. Recent updates from the team revealed that Sophon is partnering with NFT launchpad Mintify to launch exclusive NFT collections, further expanding its Web3 entertainment ecosystem.

On top of that, the team has announced a $4 million developer grant to build new applications and use cases on the Sophon network, which could drive long-term utility for SOPH. 

Together, these updates have amplified market optimism.

Sophon completed its token generation event on May 28, airdropping 900 million fully unlocked SOPH tokens, 600 million to L1 farmers, and 300 million to early users. Despite today’s strong performance, some profit-taking could occur in the short term as early airdrop receivers may look to lock in gains. 

As reported earlier by crypto.news, Huma Finance’s native token, HUMA, dropped by more than 45% shortly after its own launch across multiple major exchanges.

That said, SOPH may be better positioned to avoid a similar outcome. It already boasts listings on major platforms including Binance, Upbit, OKX, Gate.io, KuCoin, and Bitget, offering wide exposure and deep liquidity. This broad access could help stabilize prices even if the initial hype tapers off.

Recently, Bitcoin (BTC) achieved a new all-time high (ATH) of $111,980 on Binance crypto exchange, surpassing its previous ATH of $108,786 recorded in January 2025. However, this rally is missing a crucial element that has historically fuelled sustained bull markets – retail investor participation.

Bitcoin Rally Low On Retail Interest

According to a recent CryptoQuant Quicktake post by contributor burakkesmeci, retail activity during the current BTC rally is notably subdued. This is unusual, as fresh ATHs typically draw significant attention from smaller investors.

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The analyst shared the following chart highlighting this trend. It shows that BTC transfer volume in the $0 to $10,000 range – a proxy for retail demand – has only seen a slight uptick, even as prices surge.

While Bitcoin’s price has been climbing steadily (white line), the 30-day percentage change in retail demand (green line) has remained largely flat. This indicates that the current momentum is likely driven by institutional investors, with retail participants yet to join in meaningfully.

Recent developments support this view. For instance, institutional heavyweight Strategy continues to increase its BTC holdings, now closing in on the 600,000 BTC mark.

Historical patterns – particularly from the 2020–2021 bull run – suggest that while institutional accumulation often kicks off a rally, retail investors are typically the fuel that propels it to sustained highs. Without significant retail volume, the current rally may lose steam.

Concluding, the CryptoQuant analyst stated that for BTC to continue its price expansion, a clear uptick in retail participation is necessary. They added:

We’re seeing early signs of movement, but it’s not yet a breakout. If retail volume kicks in over the next few weeks, new ATHs may just be the beginning.

Predicting BTC’s Next Move

Recent flows from crypto exchanges show that BTC reserves are dwindling at a fast pace. For instance, US-based exchange Coinbase recently saw a new outflow of 7,883 BTC, raising speculations of institutions loading up on the apex digital asset before its next leg up.

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Similarly, technicals point toward BTC hitting another ATH soon. The top cryptocurrency by market cap recently broke out of a double bottom pattern on the hourly chart, fuelling hopes of a surge toward the $112,000 mark.

Meanwhile, whale behavior has been mixed. While short-term whales have taken profits, long-term holders remain steadfast, showing minimal signs of selling.

That said, BTC’s medium-term outlook remains overwhelmingly positive, with some researchers predicting a $200,000 price target by the end of 2025. At press time, BTC trades at $108,802, down 0.6% in the past 24 hours.

Featured image from Unsplash, charts from CryptoQuant and TradingView.com

Last month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) quietly published Guidelines 02/2025 on the processing of personal data through blockchain technologies. Buried in paragraph 63 is a line that jolted the entire web3 stack: “When deletion has not been taken into account by design, this may require deleting the whole blockchain.”

That one clause converts GDPR from the world’s privacy gold standard into a kill-switch for every permissionless network. Yes, that includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and the hundreds that settle trillions of dollars a year. 

The reality is worse than it seems because deleting every node is the only surefire way to “forget” a transaction. The guideline effectively makes permissionless networks non-compliant by default. Public consultation comes to a close on June 9—after that, the text hardens into Europe’s enforcement playbook. After that, Europe’s future is set.

GDPR was never written for tamper-proof ledgers

The 2018 GDPR authors assumed that data lives on centrally controlled servers where a single operator can erase it. Fast-forward to modern-day public blockchains; the opposite is true. Blockchains are distributed, immutable, and borderless.

Public chains rely on thousands of independent nodes that jointly guarantee history. Since rewriting a block would destroy that integrity, Article 17’s “right to be forgotten” collides head-first with the very feature that makes blockchains trustworthy. 

Techniques such as salted hashes, zero-knowledge proofs, and off-chain data pointers already minimize or obfuscate personal information—the new draft barely acknowledges them. Instead, it assumes that a single “data controller” can be identified, which is another notion that undermines decentralization and permissionless network integrity.

Sovereign-cloud ambitions are at risk

For two years, Brussels has promised a sovereign cloud—digital autonomy on European terms. The Commission’s latest policy goals are explicit. By 2030, three-quarters of EU businesses should run on cloud-edge technology; 10,000 climate-neutral edge nodes must be live, and the forthcoming Cloud and AI Development Act vows to triple the EU’s data-centre capacity within seven years.

All of this is framed as digital sovereignty. The problem is, sovereignty requires independence. Today, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud still hold roughly 70% of Europe’s cloud market. Members of the European Parliament warn that without an indigenous backbone, EU data remains one United States subpoena away from offshore exposure.

The only architecture that can realistically break that grip is a decentralized cloud in which infrastructure providers are coordinated by blockchain incentives, while data stays inside European data centres. If the EDPB renders those ledgers illegal by design, Brussels will hard-wire the very dependency it claims to end.

Paragraph 63 would kneecap Europe’s builders

By threatening whole-chain deletion whenever a single record cannot be erased, the draft injects existential risk into every European web3 project and ices any future venture funding. Its bias toward permissioned ledgers nudges developers back to the centralized silos policymakers say they oppose.

Labeling volunteer validators “data controllers” would saddle hobbyists with corporate-grade liability, shrink node participation, and weaken network security. Treating every peer-to-peer link as a regulated international transfer risks splintering global consensus behind national borders. 

Requiring human overrides for smart contracts breaks composability and undermines everything from decentralized finance to on-chain Environmental Social and Governance reporting, which big energy companies have already piloted. 

A joint call-to-action from the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI) and Web3Privacy Now warns that the draft guidelines “fundamentally threaten the existence of public blockchains” across Europe. What more evidence does the EU need to see that including this paragraph will kneecap its own builders?

Privacy-by-design beats prohibition

A cleaner path preserves both privacy and decentralization. Destroying an encryption key or proving in zero-knowledge that the key is irretrievable satisfies the intent of Article 17 without dismantling a ledger. The guidelines should recognize cryptographic deletion alongside physical erasure, state that a 32-byte on-chain hash is not personal data, and treat validators as processors rather than “controllers.” 

Brussels has already shown through the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation that bespoke rules for frontier tech can be crafted without blanket bans. Striking the kill-switch sentence, codifying key-to-dust deletion, and clarifying validator status would align GDPR with technical reality, all while keeping Europe’s sovereign-cloud strategy alive.

The public-comment portal closes in less than a month, and unless paragraph 63 is rebalanced, Europe risks spending the next decade paying U.S. hyperscalers to host ‘sovereign’ data. Meanwhile, the rest of the world will build on auditable, privacy-preserving rails beyond Brussels’ reach.

With time fast running out, builders, investors, and policymakers should hit that comment portal now, before Europe locks itself out of its own digital future.

Kai Wawrzinek

Kai Wawrzinek is a co-founder of the Impossible Cloud & Impossible Cloud Network. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Law and a proven track record of building successful ventures. Recognizing the need for enterprise-grade solutions in the web3 space, Kai founded Impossible Cloud Network (ICN), a decentralized cloud platform aimed at creating a decentralized alternative to AWS. Before ICN, Kai founded Goodgame Studios, an online game company, and grew the company to over 1,000 employees and generated more than €1 billion in revenue, taking it public on Nasdaq in 2018 through a reverse merger.