BLOK-Chain Monthly July 2026

Written by Amplify ETFs | Jul 15, 2026 5:25:14 PM

Blockchain Is Charging Forward With Or Without Clarity.

In June BLOK experienced a pullback in performance of 7.61% but the 26.37% rebound in the second quarter showed strong results. Year-to-date (YTD) the Fund is up 10.35% (NAV returns, view standardized performance). We’ve seen this kind of volatility before, and it’s historically been followed by an explosive rebound. Markets sometimes go through a digestion period to find price equilibrium while investors assimilate information and risks, but in the past have found a clear path forward as foundational progress becomes convincing. We think we are in this kind of setup based on the innovation and adoption we are seeing. For new investors, however, the challenge is getting started.

June Highlights:

Blockchain is everywhere, particularly in finance and the financial rails. While Strategy and Bitcoin in general may be having trouble at the tail end of a bear market, we are optimistic that a “winter chill” will be coming to an end. Here are some key highlights of our June thoughts:

	Citi, JP Morgan & Major Banks — Tokenized Deposit Network The largest U.S. banks plan to launch a tokenized deposit network, to be operated by the Clearing House, connecting traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure — positioning it as a direct response to crypto encroachment on banking.¹
	Jamie Dimon on Blockchain JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated that blockchain will “replace financial market infrastructure,” noting that JPMorgan is already among the largest users of the technology — while continuing to distance himself from speculative cryptocurrencies.²
	SpaceX Hyperledger and Tokenized Shares Tokenized equities saw a record of $3.4 billion in volume for the month of June, (The Kobeissi Letter, 2026). Tokenization platform xStocks launched tokenized SpaceX shares (ticker: SPCXx) on a blockchain, offering crypto traders 24/7 access. Demand was described as overwhelming, though the launch hit snags when exchange Bybit reportedly did not receive any SpaceX allocations. We would also highlight that the Hyperliquid platform telegraphed the opening of SPCX stock on the Nasdaq prior to it officially opening on June 12th and allowed people plenty of time to trade the stock prior to the issuance date. A substantial amount of the volume growth has also been driven on the Jupiter platform, the largest on-chain platform, and about 60% of volume has been traded off hours.
	Figure Acquires Kiavi Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-native capital marketplace for tokenized assets, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Kiavi, an AI-powered lending platform for residential real estate investors.
	Open Standard Open Standard (led by former Coinbase executive Zach Abrams) is launching Open USD (OUSD), a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by a consortium of over 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, and BlackRock.³ The initiative is built for the internet economy to act as shared infrastructure.⁴ In a modern economy, competition is typically the best way to move regulation forward.
	Strategy (MSTR - aka MicroStrategy) The largest Digital Asset Treasury Company, acknowledged on June 29th a new, more flexible capital allocation framework that addresses some of the market’s concerns. As very early investors in MSTR, we view this action as pragmatic and necessary for the good of the ecosystem. However, while MSTR plays defense, Bitcoin will have to find a natural level at what we believe will prove to be the tail end of the bear market. According to market consensus sentiment, historically, peak to trough levels line up within a year’s time frame, which would be at about $125,000 on October 6th, 2025. What that bottom is, of course, is the question. Our optimistic view is sometime around fourth quarter. Wouldn’t it be neat if it was October 6th, 2026? Here is the argument for why it might happen this way.⁵ For those looking for a more complicated thesis that is more in depth, we refer you to Galaxy’s Head of Research, Alex Thorne’s June 12th piece, “Bitcoin May Not Have Bottomed Yet. Here’s Where the Data Says it Could”.⁶ Bottom line, our thoughts are: Don’t throw in the towel yet. We are likely closer to a bottom than a top, and when the reversal occurs, we believe the momentum will be steady, exciting, and followed by new highs. More importantly, it will also reflect an acceleration of new blockchain adoption!
	Market Structure Bill The Clarity Act may be stalled, with the odds of approval now appearing to run below 50/50 for 2026. Given the momentum of adoption and the benefits of the payment rails getting the much-needed upgrade we do not see a significant pullback in momentum. With the integration of AI agents on the “crypto rails” to monitor and execute “smart contracts” we think the benefits outweigh the risks for a political divide that is very much targeted at conflicts of interest related to the Trump crypto investments.
	Swift’s Blockchain ledger moves from concept to a plan of action Over the next 6-9 months that will bring tokenization of deposits and securities, with 17 major global banks having signed up.⁷ Similarly, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is accelerating its efforts with a targeted launch date in October.⁸ Like highways, how all these different platforms integrate is the only real question. Toll-booths may be the answer.

Attribution:

BLOK’s returns have historically been lumpy, and June and the second quarter were no exception. In June, the Fund was down, with no stocks contributing more than 0.25% of positive return and weak breadth in about a handful of stocks in the range of 0.52% to 0.83%. To be clear, diversification was our friend despite the decline. Strategy, for example, was down 45% during June yet only hurt performance by 0.66% because the stock’s weighting in the Fund was below 1%. We have found that diversification is the best defense when declines occur because we can re-load for the upswing.

While Bitcoin declined approximately 13% during the quarter, BLOK advanced 26.37% (NAV), driven primarily by exposure to data center infrastructure companies.

Leading contributors included:

HUT 8 (HUT): +4.69% contribution; stock up approximately 147%
Cipher Digital (CIFR): +3.15%; stock up approximately 90%
TeraWulf (WULF): +2.66%; stock up approximately 71%
Core Scientific (CORZ): +1.89%; stock up approximately 71%
Applied Digital (APLD): +1.26%; stock up approximately 57%
CleanSpark (CLSK): +1.16%; stock up approximately 71%

BLOK also benefited during the second quarter from exposure in the semi-conductor industry. AMD and DELL contributed about 2.6% each with AMD’s stock moving about 185% and DELL’s stock moving about 163%.

We continue to maintain direct exposure of about 8.25% through holdings in Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum ETFs and about four Digital Asset Debt companies (Strategy/MSTR, Metaplanet 3350 JP/MTPLF, Sharplink/SBET, and Hyperliquid/PURR).

Transaction and Repositioning:

In June we continued to manage some of the idiosyncratic risk by trimming into strength in winners among the above-mentioned data centers, and we swapped some exposure from DELL Computers (DELL) into Broadcom (AVGO).

The Fund’s top 10 holdings have historically been in the range of 33% to close to 40%. From May 30 to June 30, this percentage was reduced from 37% to 34%. When we are at the lower end, we tend to be playing defense and may hold some cash in the range of 2-3%.

¹CryptoNews. JPMorgan, Citi, and Bank of America Just Built a Tokenized Payment Network to Kill Stablecoins. June 6, 2026.
²YouTube, Forbes Breaking News. JPMorgan CEO Lays Out Why Crypto Will 'Replace Financial Market Infrastructure' In Future. May 31, 2026.
³Yahoo Finance. Open Standard Unveils Dollar Stablecoin Backed by Visa and Mastercard. July 1, 2026.
⁴Reap. What Is Open USD? The Visa and Stripe Backed Stablecoin, Explained. July 1, 2026.
⁵CCN. Bitcoin Halving Cycle: Why the 2026 Crash Was on Schedule. June 11, 2026.
⁶Galaxy. Bitcoin May Not Have Bottomed Yet. Here’s Where the Data Says it Could. June 12, 2026.
⁷Swift. Swift’s Blockchain Ledger Ready for Use as 17 Banks Set to Pioneer Tokenised Cross Border Payments on Trusted Global Infrastructure. July 9, 2026.
⁸Financial News. U.S. DTCC to Launch DTC Asset Tokenization Platform in October [Crypto Briefing]. July 9, 2026.

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