MassPay taps Coinbase to add USDC-powered cross-border payouts, betting stablecoin rails will cut costs and speed up settlement for businesses paying globally.

Executives from Franklin Templeton and BNP Paribas say tokenized assets and stablecoins could improve capital efficiency across Europe as Wall Street expands tokenization efforts.

Microsoft's internal restriction on Claude Fable 5 underscores the growing complexity of AI governance, balancing innovation with data security.

The post Microsoft limits employee access to Claude Fable 5 over data retention concerns appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The integration of crypto in global sports events like the World Cup could accelerate digital currency adoption and reshape fan engagement.

The post Paraguay faces United States in 2026 World Cup opener as Kraken becomes FIFA’s official crypto exchange supporter appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Hedgeye has filed for a “Hedged Bitcoin” ETF that would combine exposure to spot ETFs with an options overlay designed to reduce volatility and manage downside risk. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart flagged the filing on X, calling it a new attempt to package BTC exposure in a more defensive wrapper.

“WOAH — NEW: Hedgeye ‘Hedged Bitcoin’ ETF was just filed,” Seyffart wrote. He added that, according to the filing, the product would “hold spot Bitcoin ETFs and use options strategies to reduce vol and downside risk.”

The proposed fund is named the Hedgeye Hedged Bitcoin ETF and would trade under the ticker HBIT on NYSE Arca, Inc., according to the prospectus excerpt shared by Seyffart. The document remains preliminary, stating that the information “is not complete and may be changed,” and that the securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission becomes effective.

Bitcoin Exposure With A Risk Overlay

The core structure is straightforward: the fund seeks Bitcoin exposure through ETPs and ETFs, while using options to dampen volatility and limit downside. The prospectus says the fund aims “to reduce volatility and manage downside risk through an options strategy that involves the purchase and/or sale of put and call options” based on Hedgeye Risk Management, LLC’s proprietary signals.

Those signals are described as “Risk Range” signals, which the filing says are used to develop market entry and exit points for investable assets. In practice, the ETF would not simply buy and hold Bitcoin-linked products. It would adjust its options positioning based on market conditions, implied volatility, Bitcoin price trends, liquidity, and other factors determined by the adviser.

“The Fund will utilize options on shares of Reference ETPs and/or on indexes or ETPs and ETFs that provide exposure to Bitcoin price movements,” the filing states. “The Fund’s options strategy is designed to reduce volatility and manage downside risk while maintaining exposure to the performance of Bitcoin through investments in ETPs and ETFs.”

That language puts HBIT in a growing category of crypto products aimed not at maximizing raw upside, but at changing the return profile of Bitcoin exposure. For allocators, the relevant pitch is not merely access to BTC, which is already available through spot ETFs, but a rules-based overlay intended to make that exposure more tolerable during drawdowns.

Downside Protection, But With A Trade-Off

The filing is explicit that the hedge comes with a cost. The fund’s option positions are “designed to provide downside protection,” but may also mean “frequently foregoing some upside potential.” That is the central trade-off in the strategy: investors may get a smoother ride in adverse markets, but they may also give up part of Bitcoin’s upside during strong advances.

“The premiums received from writing options are intended to provide income to offset the cost of buying options,” the filing says. The fund may buy and write both standardized exchange-traded options and Flexible Exchange Options, or FLEX Options, which are exchange-listed contracts with customizable terms such as strike price and expiration date.

The prospectus also notes that both standardized exchange-traded options and FLEX Options are guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation. FLEX Options differ from typical listed contracts because investors can customize certain key terms that are normally standardized.

At press time, BTC traded at $62,719.

Dogecoin is once again facing questions about its future as prices hover near multi-year lows and investor enthusiasm continues to fade. Yet just as many traders are beginning to lose confidence, a massive event tied to Elon Musk’s business empire is generating fresh discussion about whether DOGE could be preparing for an unexpected second act.

Dogecoin’s Missing Spark

Dogecoin’s market position appears far weaker than in previous cycles. The cryptocurrency is trading around $0.084 and remains down nearly 57% over the past year, with losses across the weekly, monthly, and yearly timeframes. More importantly, Dogecoin is struggling with something deeper than price weakness. The narratives that once fueled demand and attracted new investors have steadily lost momentum.

For years, Elon Musk played a central role in Dogecoin’s rise. His comments and public references regularly generated excitement that pushed the cryptocurrency into headlines. However, recent developments suggest the market no longer responds with the same enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, institutional adoption has yet to fill the gap. Spot Dogecoin ETF inflows remain modest, with SoSoValue data showing total assets of about $12 million, while recent daily net inflows have largely stalled.

The broader market has also worked against the asset. Since peaking in 2024, the meme-coin sector has shed billions in value. As speculative capital exited the market, Dogecoin lost one of the strongest drivers behind its previous rallies.

Why SpaceX’s IPO Is In The Conversation

While Dogecoin’s recent performance has fueled concerns about its future, the upcoming SpaceX IPO has introduced a new element into the discussion.

According to details from SpaceX’s IPO filing, the company is seeking a valuation approaching $1.75 trillion, a figure that would make it one of the most valuable public companies in the world. The scale of the offering is significant, but what makes it relevant to Dogecoin is Elon Musk’s continued presence at the center of both stories.

The filing shows that Musk is expected to retain overwhelming voting control after the IPO, ensuring that SpaceX remains tied to his long-term vision. The public debut is also expected to place Musk and his growing network of businesses back in the global spotlight, attracting attention from global investors.

Historically, periods of heightened interest surrounding Musk have often spilled over into assets associated with him, and no cryptocurrency has benefited from that connection more than Dogecoin. Although the IPO has no direct link to the cryptocurrency, renewed attention surrounding Musk’s business empire could still influence market sentiment.

For that reason, some investors view the IPO as a potential catalyst for renewed interest in Dogecoin. Whether that translates into a lasting recovery remains uncertain, particularly as institutional participation remains limited and the broader meme-coin sector continues to recover from a downturn. However, with one of the largest IPOs in history approaching, Dogecoin may soon receive something that has repeatedly played a role in past rallies: widespread attention. Whether attention alone is enough to drive a sustainable revival is the question the market is now weighing.

SBI Shinsei Bank is reportedly offering crypto deposit rewards to customers, with vouchers worth 20% of their interest payments redeemable for BTC, ETH, or XRP through SBI VC Trade.

A three-month campaign launched on June 10, with a broader rollout planned for fall, covering ordinary deposits and time deposits from three months to five years, roughly 4.33 million individual accounts.

The mechanics reveal SBI using digital asset vouchers to make a conventional yen deposit stickier at a moment when Japanese savers have real alternatives for the first time in decades.

The Bank of Japan's policy rate now sits at 0.75%, the highest level in decades, with three board members on record in favor of 1.0%.

A Reuters poll published June 10 found that 94% of economists expected the BOJ to raise the rate to 1.0% by the end of June, with over 75% projecting 1.25% by the fourth quarter.

Japan's loan-to-deposit ratio reached 65.7% by September 2025, its highest point since March 2020, as banks face more domestic lending demand. NISA investment accounts reached 28.26 million, with cumulative purchases totaling roughly $442 billion by the end of 2025, already surpassing the government's $349 billion target for 2027.

Together, these numbers describe a deposit market where banks can no longer assume household cash will sit still, and where the competitive logic demands something beyond a marginally better rate.

That makes the campaign less a standalone crypto promotion and more a test case in Japan's deposit competition.

The mechanics reveal the motive

Japan's household financial assets stood at approximately $14.65 trillion at end-2025, with $7.10 trillion held in cash and deposits, compared with 10% in the US and 35% in the UK.

For decades, zero rates gave banks captive depositors in the form of savers with nowhere better to go and no reason to move. Rising rates, tax-advantaged investing through NISA, and recovering equity markets have changed the arithmetic.

Deposits are now a product battlefield, and banks like SMFG and MUFG are bundling banking, securities, and payments to hold retail funds inside their groups.

SBI's response to that pressure is to keep the deposit in yen, pay interest in yen, and offer crypto as an optional voucher redeemable only through SBI VC Trade, a condition that reflects the product's architecture.

Customers who want the crypto reward must open an SBI VC Trade account, which converts bank deposits into a customer-acquisition funnel for the group's crypto exchange.

The structure borrows directly from credit card rewards and airline miles by layering a small, high-perceived-value perk onto a low-margin financial product to make switching feel costly and cross-selling feel natural.

A $6,231 one-year deposit at 1.0% earns roughly $50 in net interest after Japan's standard 20.315% withholding. The 20% crypto voucher on that interest amounts to approximately $10, or about 16 basis points of principal.

At the same rate, the three-month deposit of $1,850 comes to around $0.75. At those levels, the reward functions as a customer-acquisition coupon priced to move depositors through a funnel at a cost well below what raising deposit rates across the entire book would require.

Three campaigns on one architecture

In September 2025, SBI VC Trade and SBI Shinsei ran a campaign offering eligible customers $6 in XRP vouchers, plus a share of $623,000 in XRP, contingent on opening an SBI Hyper Yokin account and meeting balance requirements.

In February 2026, SBI Shinsei ran another campaign offering up to $124 in XRP vouchers on six-month PowerDirect yen time deposits, with SBI VC Trade framing the program explicitly as a way to “experience XRP” through conventional deposits.

A $62,300 example deposit earned roughly $174 after tax, plus a $62 XRP voucher, with the voucher exceeding 20% of the interest, reflecting a campaign focused on tiers.

SBI's tokenized retail bond used the same logic in parallel in February 2026, with XRP vouchers serving as a one-time rebate that required an SBI VC Trade account.

SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture between SBI Holdings and Ripple, has positioned XRP within SBI's group infrastructure since its founding. In these campaigns, XRP serves as a redeemable reward object chosen because it is already familiar within SBI's reward architecture and incurs no additional integration cost for the group.

Two ways this plays out

If Japanese depositors prove more conservative than the reward design assumes, preferring cash bonuses over crypto vouchers as rivals compete on headline rates, activation stays modest.

At 0.5% to 1% redemption across 4.33 million eligible accounts, SBI converts roughly 22,000 to 43,000 new exchange customers. The program stays as a promotional layer, and XRP retains its role as a marketing asset with no measurable effect on exchange volumes or token demand.

If crypto rewards prove effective at a lower cost than competing on rates, and a meaningful share of new exchange customers become repeat users of SBI's cards, securities, and broader financial products, the calculus shifts materially.

At 7% to 12% redemption, SBI generates between 303,000 and 520,000 SBI VC Trade activations.
At that scale, the proof SBI is actually building toward is whether crypto-linked rewards can function as a standing retention layer across deposits, bonds, and securities simultaneously, establishing crypto-as-loyalty-infrastructure as a repeatable group-wide model.

The actual prize

Japan's banking groups are competing to own the full financial relationship with the country's household savers: deposits, investments, brokerage, cards, and crypto exposure.

SBI's voucher program is one entry into that contest, keeping the deposit conventional, the interest conventional, and the crypto appearing at the edge as a hook designed to pull customers one step deeper into the group.

Whether that hook is strong enough to work depends on whether Japanese savers find crypto upside compelling enough to act on a $1 voucher.

SBI bets the distinction between a crypto-native product and a crypto-flavored one stays invisible to customers and defensible to regulators.

The post Japan’s SBI is using XRP to solve a banking problem appeared first on CryptoSlate.

BlackRock has updated its regulatory filing for a new Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, signaling an imminent launch that intensifies a Wall Street race against Goldman Sachs Group to capture yield-seeking digital asset investors.

On June 10, the world's largest asset manager submitted an updated prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, which will trade under the ticker BITA.

The amendment introduces critical operational and pricing parameters, including an annualized sponsor fee of 0.65% that will be payable at least quarterly.

The fee positions BITA as a higher-cost alternative to plain-vanilla spot Bitcoin funds, such as BlackRock's own iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

Still, this fee is significantly below the expense structures typical of larger equity-based covered-call ETFs currently operating in traditional financial markets.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the submission likely represents the final structural adjustment before the fund receives regulatory approval to begin public trading.

Inside the Seed Capital and Trust Mechanics

The updated registration statement provides an operational look at the fund's initial financial standing, filling in several key metrics that were omitted in the initial January filing.

The documentation notes that an initial seed investor acquired 198,000 shares at $50 per share on June 1, which provided $9.9 million in proceeds to establish the trust.

According to the filing, BlackRock deployed that capital to establish the fund's baseline portfolio on June 9. The trust acquired exactly 109.9630217 Bitcoin alongside 90,901 shares of IBIT.

Simultaneously, the fund managers wrote 856 options contracts to initiate the income-generating component of the strategy. Following these transactions, the trust reported a net asset value of approximately $9.99 million, representing an initial net asset value per share of $49.97.

To maintain daily operations, the prospectus notes that the trust intends to fulfill its ongoing 0.65% sponsor fee by periodically liquidating portions of its IBIT holdings.

This mechanical design reflects the fund's blended composition, holding physical Bitcoin, liquid spot ETF shares, and cash instruments concurrently while writing options contracts primarily against its IBIT equity allocation.

The covered-call strategy and volatility dynamics

The investment mandate positions BITA as a covered-call Bitcoin ETF designed to track Bitcoin’s baseline performance while generating premium distributions.

The management team intends to achieve this by selling call options on IBIT shares and, occasionally, on specialized indexes that monitor broader spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products.

By selling these options, the fund collects upfront premiums from counterparties seeking leveraged exposure to potential upward movements in IBIT's share price. In exchange for this immediate revenue stream, the fund surrenders its right to capital appreciation above a predetermined strike price.

BlackRock's strategy involves maintaining a target overwrite level between 25% and 35% of the trust's total net asset value.

This partial overwrite strategy ensures that a significant majority of the portfolio remains unhedged, allowing shareholders to participate in a portion of Bitcoin's market rallies while utilizing a smaller segment of the asset base to sustain distribution yields.

For asset allocators, the structure mirrors equity-linked income vehicles that have gained substantial market share during periods of range-bound or moderately positive stock performance.

Cryptocurrency presents a unique underlying asset for this strategy due to its structurally elevated implied volatility relative to conventional asset classes like equities or sovereign debt. High volatility inflates the market price of options contracts, theoretically allowing BITA to harvest larger premiums than comparable stock-index funds.

However, this income-generation model involves inherent trade-offs. In a sharp cryptocurrency bull market, the written call options cap the fund's total returns, causing BITA to underperform the underlying spot asset.

Conversely, the strategy offers moderate downside protection during flat or mildly declining market environments, as the collected premiums offset minor capital losses.

Goldman Sachs escalates the competitive race

The timing of BlackRock's amendment intensifies a confrontation with Goldman Sachs, which has advanced its own regulatory framework for a competing vehicle.

The Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF is projected to complete its regulatory review process and become effective near the beginning of July.

While both Wall Street institutions are targeting identical customer demographics, their operational frameworks exhibit stark differences.

The Goldman Sachs product will not hold physical cryptocurrency directly. Instead, the investment strategy dictates that at least 80% of its net assets will be directed into vehicles providing Bitcoin exposure, including external spot Bitcoin ETPs, exchange-traded options contracts, and a wholly-owned subsidiary based in the Cayman Islands.

Furthermore, Goldman Sachs plans to implement a more aggressive options overwrite framework. Its regulatory filings indicate an expected options overwrite level ranging between 40% and 100% of its total Bitcoin exposure under standard market conditions.

This operational variance could dictate market preferences once both funds are active. Goldman’s wider overwrite parameters permit higher theoretical distribution yields during stagnant market conditions but expose investors to more extensive upside caps during sudden Bitcoin market rallies.

On the other hand, BlackRock’s conservative 25% to 35% range retains greater capital appreciation potential at the cost of lower baseline distribution targets.

Maturation of the Bitcoin ecosystem

The transition toward actively managed, yield-bearing cryptocurrency products marks the second major evolution of the digital asset ETF ecosystem.

The first phase focused entirely on establishing direct infrastructure, exemplified by BlackRock's flagship spot vehicle, IBIT, which has accumulated $62 billion in total net inflows since its 2024 launch, according to data compiled by SoSoValue.

The introduction of BITA and Goldman’s rival product signals that Bitcoin ETF income is becoming a distinct product category beyond basic spot exposure.

Wall Street asset managers are now focusing on product differentiation to attract risk-averse institutional portfolios and wealth advisory networks that prioritize recurring cash flow over pure speculation.

This emerging segment is not without existing competition. The upcoming institutional offerings will enter a marketplace where specialized issuers have already established an early foothold. The NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI), for instance, has accumulated more than $1 billion in assets under management by utilizing a comparable options-driven yield framework.

Meanwhile, the long-term viability of these premium income vehicles rests on investor education regarding the distinction between structural yield and traditional fixed-income securities.

The payouts generated by BITA and its peers are derived entirely from options pricing dynamics and market volatility, rather than interest payments or underlying corporate cash flows.

Consequently, distribution rates will fluctuate based on macroeconomic shifts, trading volumes, and shifting options volatility indices.

The post BlackRock races Goldman Sachs to turn Bitcoin volatility into ETF income appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Citigroup has launched Digital Depositary Receipts, a blockchain-based product that gives institutional and wealthy investors exposure to private startup shares through securities the bank issues and safekeeps.

The receipts settle on regulated blockchain infrastructure operated by Switzerland’s SIX. Citi designed the system so other Wall Street banks can adopt it, a detail that could shape how private markets trade.

How Citi’s Digital Depositary Receipts Work

Depositary receipts have historically let investors hold foreign stocks through bank-issued certificates.

According to the WSJ report, Citi has now adapted that wrapper for private markets, with issuance recorded on SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) rails.

Buyers receive a Citi-issued security rather than direct equity. In contrast, special-purpose vehicles and offshore pre-IPO token models often leave investors unsure what they actually own.

Artem Korenyuk, Citi’s global lead for digital assets client solutions, called the receipts a cleaner route.

“This is a very clear alternative model.”

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

The first transaction saw Citi wealth clients invest in Kaleido, a tokenization platform backed by Citi Ventures.

Access starts with non-US investors, carrying transaction and maintenance fees, and US availability is planned later.

Meanwhile, the bank says it is in talks with some of the largest private companies.

Private Startup Shares Edge Closer to Mainstream Portfolios

The launch extends Citi’s May 2025 partnership with SDX, which made the bank a custodian and tokenization agent for late-stage pre-IPO equities.

Sygnum and SBI Digital Markets distribute those assets to clients in Europe and Asia.

Demand has an obvious driver. Companies such as SpaceX and Anthropic have delayed going public, pushing investors into products like tokenized SpaceX shares.

Citi’s own research has projected an 80-fold rise in tokenization across private markets by 2030.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan argued the launch shows investors routing around barriers to going public.

“It’s amazing to see capital markets heal themselves. Regulators and lawyers made being public toxic, so companies started staying private longer. But investors will not be denied forever, and are finding a solution via blockchain,” Hougan stated.

However, commentators including Chad Steingraber noted that access stays confined to wealthy and institutional clients rather than retail.

Citi, JPMorgan, and other US banks are also planning a shared tokenized deposit network for 2027, deepening the same settlement push.

The largest private issuers authorizing their shares for the program will determine if the RWA tokenization debate moves from pilots to scale.

The post Citi Is Creating a Way for Investors to Buy Private Startup Shares Like Stocks appeared first on BeInCrypto.

On June 2nd, the BeInCrypto x Proof of Talk Institutional 100 Awards brought the leading names in institutional digital finance to the Louvre Palace in Paris.

The ceremony took place on the main stage of the Proof of Talk summit, in front of an audience of 2,500 decision-makers, 85% of whom hold C-level, collectively responsible for more than $18 trillion in AUM. The same audience the Institutional 100 was built to recognize.

Hosted by BeInCrypto CEO and Founder, Alena Afanaseva, Global Head of News, Brian McGleenon, and Chief Strategy Officer, Jessica Lloyd, the evening honored the 100 companies and individuals leading the convergence of traditional finance and digital assets in 2026. 

The Night’s Winners

Representatives from Visa, Coinbase, Moody’s Ratings, Franklin Templeton, Chainalysis, Wintermute, and others took the stage to receive their awards in front of an audience of institutional investors, fund managers and industry executives. 

How the List Was Built

The Institutional 100 is an independent media awards programme built on a single principle: if you made the list, you earned it. Over 500 candidates were screened across 26 categories and six segments through a two-stage evaluation, a quantitative screen using publicly verifiable data followed by independent judge scoring. 

Several of the judges presented the awards in person, including Clem Chambers (Founder, ADVFN), Fabian Dori (CIO, Sygnum Bank), Michael Walsh (Chair, Kraken DA Exchange), Charles Kerrigan (Partner, CMS) and Arnaud Bader (Wintermute). The wider panel brought together Charlie Morris (CEO, ByteTree, formerly HSBC), Iggy Ioppe (CIO, Theo, formerly Credit Suisse), Tal Elyashiv (Founder, Securitize and SPiCE VC) and Dr. Christina Zhang (Co-Chair, UN Task Group on CitiVerse), among others.

The Full Institutional 100

The complete list of winners, across capital markets, tokenization, regulation, enterprise blockchain, and retail access to digital assets, is live, alongside the full photo gallery from the evening.

Explore the Institutional 100 2026: https://awards.beincrypto.com/

Congratulations to our winners, and to everyone who’s building the next phase of finance. Thank you to the judges of the BeInCrypto Expert Council, who gave their time and judgment to this year’s list.

The Institutional 100 returns in 2027. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

The post Inside the Institutional 100 Ceremony at the Louvre appeared first on BeInCrypto.

On June 10, Ripple, the leading blockchain and cryptocurrency company, announced that it is joining Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines program (AP4M).

As AI agents begin transacting on behalf of businesses, payments need more than speed. They need trust, controls, and clear rules for how value moves.

We’re helping build the infrastructure for trusted agent-driven payments, with the XRP Ledger and $RLUSD helping lay the… https://t.co/VyrC5a8e2e pic.twitter.com/OyF5vQIDYZ

— Ripple (@Ripple) June 10, 2026

Ripple Partners with Mastercard’s AP4M Program

Ripple has mentioned that artificial intelligence agents are becoming capable of managing business transactions, and payments need more than just speed. However, it is important to have strong control and clear regulations for these agents.

In the official statement, Ripple said it is helping in the development of infrastructure for agent-based payments. The company stated that the XRP Ledger and its stablecoin RLUSD are helping lay the foundation for the future of commerce. 

Markus Infanger, senior vice president of RippleX, stated in the press release, “Autonomous agents are already settling invoices and paying for compute on their own, but institutions can only move at that speed if the controls move with them. XRPL and RLUSD are built so enterprises can let agents transact at machine speed within rules the chain itself enforces, with settlement in seconds, predictable costs, programmable compliance, and a full audit trail, so agents can only ever do what they are authorized to do.”

He said, “Mastercard’s move toward regulated stablecoin settlement on-chain is an important signal that this is evolving from an emerging capability into an enterprise standard.”

Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines Launch 

Mastercard has officially rolled out a service Agent Pay for Machines on June 10, 2026. The purpose of this program is to create a payment ecosystem for autonomous AI agents. These programs will handle large frequency and low volume transactions,  and these transactions can be as low as a fraction of a cent. This entire process will run in an automatic manner in the background without any kind of intervention by humans.

This program is joined by more than 30 partners, including Aave Labs, Alchemy, Anchorage Digital, BVNK, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Mastercard Merchant Cloud, MoonPay, Nevermined, OKX, PayOS, Polygon, Rain, RippleX, Solana Foundation, Stripe, and others.

This new service is part of Mastercard’s earlier Agent Pay program, which was launched in 2025. It is working on integrating how trusted AI agents could take part in digital payments. Agent Pay for Machines is expanding this program with machine-based automated microtransactions in e-commerce.

Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said that “Agent Pay for Machines will create the conditions for a superbloom of AI business models. Machine payments can make it possible for services to be bought and sold among agents at fundamentally different scales than payments today — very high volumes, very small values, very fast and at extremely low latency.”

The AP4M has introduced new capabilities for machine commerce, including Credentialing, Permissioning, Transacting, and Settling.

Stablecoin’s Role in Agentic Payments Growth

Agentic commerce is expected to witness impressive growth in the upcoming years. According to Juniper Research, the global market capitalization of agentic commerce is expected to soar above $1.5 trillion by 2030, and Mastercard is going to play a major role behind this growth.

In Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) program, there are partners like Ripple, Coinbase, BVNK, and Temp, which will provide the benefits of stablecoins for agentic commerce. This includes better speed, programmability, and efficiency. Here, Ripple and its native stablecoin, RLUSD, will play a major role in creating basic building blocks for trusted payments supported by agentic payments. 

On June 9, Grayscale shared a report regarding Bitcoin’s current price movement amid the bearish sentiment in the overall crypto market.

🆕 Grayscale Research: Is Bitcoin cheap yet?

After hitting a new cycle low of ~$60K, onchain valuation metrics say undervalued, but not as cheap as past cycle lows.

Identifying the bottom comes down to two catalysts:
↳ CLARITY Act
↳ How levered $BTC holders hold up.

Read… pic.twitter.com/9HbD65oXWM

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) June 9, 2026

Grayscale Research Says, This Bear Market is Shallower Than Previous Cycles

According to the research by Grayscale, on-chain data suggests that Bitcoin is currently trading below its long-term average, and it looks undervalued. However, the company mentioned that the price of Bitcoin is not as low as it was during the past bear market cycle during the FTX collapse in 2022.

The research stated that, “On-chain metrics suggest Bitcoin is undervalued, but not as cheap as previous cycle lows. Whether we have found the market bottom will depend on upcoming catalysts and the CLARITY Act, but we believe this is a buying opportunity for investors with long-term horizons.”

To do this research, Grayscale had used a composite on-chain valuation indicator, which combines several popular blockchain metrics into a single measure. According to this indicator, Bitcoin is selling at a discount compared to its previous norms. However, the company made it clear that the current bear market has been mild in comparison to the previous cycles.

“We believe that this bear market may be shallower than in the past, given a more muted preceding bull market, as well as improvements in market structure from ETP availability, wealth platform deployment, and other types of institutional adoption,” stated the research.

In the report, the investors are currently focusing on the regulatory developments around the digital asset sector and how leveraged BTC holders are performing in the short term. Grayscale mentioned two factors behind BTC’s price movement on the short-term chart.

The first one is the progress in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) in the Senate. In May, the Senate Banking Committee approved the CLARITY Act after a long delay in the process.

Senator Cynthia Lummis stated in the post on X, saying that, “I’ve spent years building toward this moment. The Clarity Act is the most consequential financial legislation of this generation, and we are going to get it done.”

The major factor to watch for investors is whether leveraged Bitcoin holders will be able to stabilize their balance sheet.

“We believe that current price levels offer an opportunity for investors with long-term investment horizons to consider dollar-cost averaging their Bitcoin purchases. More tactical traders may want to consider waiting on CLARITY,” a Grayscale researcher said.

Bitcoin Struggles to Recover Amid Major ETF Outflows

According to CoinMarketCap, BTC is currently trading at around $61,901 after witnessing a drop of 21% in the last 30 days.

This chaos in the world of finance has brought about selling pressure in the cryptocurrency markets because people have begun to withdraw their money. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like BlackRock ETFs have witnessed the longest streak of outflow in its history, which lasted for 13 days. In total, investors have withdrawn around $4.4 billion worth of investments.

Even BTC ETFs are still witnessing major outflows. On June 5, BTC ETFs recorded an outflow of around $325.7 million, according to Farside. On June 8, it witnessed an outflow of around $91.4 million. This shows the depleting trust of institutional investors in the crypto market during high volatility periods.

Despite persistent market uncertainty and bearish sentiment across parts of the cryptocurrency sector, Ethereum is approaching a significant adoption milestone, with the number of non-empty wallets nearing 200 million. While price fluctuations often dominate investor attention, the steady growth in wallet activity suggests that participation in the ETH ecosystem continues to expand.

How Ethereum’s Expanding User Network Signals Resilience

Ethereum is rapidly approaching a major adoption milestone, with the network now approaching 200 million non-empty wallets despite high Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). Santiment Intelligence on X pointed out that the ETH network continues to grow exponentially compared to other top market capitalizations, while facing some of the most negative sentiment in crypto.

The network now boasts approximately 195 million non-empty wallets, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s roughly 59 million. This represents a lead of more than 230%, a gap that has continued to grow across multiple market cycles. While social media narratives focus on ETH’s recent price underperformance, user adoption continues to move in the opposite direction.

ETH now sits just 5 million wallets away from the 200 million milestone. Much of the growth is driven by ETH dominance in Decentralized Finance (DeFi), staking, and broader on-chain activity, where users are not just holding assets but actively participating in the network. Despite the recent crowd sentiment indicators falling into extreme fear territory, ETH’s rising wallet growth suggests that long-term adoption continues to accelerate beneath the surface.

Why Ethereum’s Consolidation May Be A Sign Of Market Maturity

Ethereum’s current market structure may be less a sign of weakness and more a reflection of a natural consolidation process. According to Materkel, ETH remains one of the fastest assets in history to reach a $500 million valuation, even if Anthropic might overtake it depending on when it goes public.

Rather than signalling weakness, this appears to be an extreme healthy consolidation that happens after an asset has experienced a meteoric rise. Materkel argues that a large portion of BitMine’s ETH is most likely coming from long-term holders who invested as early as the initial coin offering (ICO) or at sub-$100 levels. Over the past five years, with ETH trading between $1,000 and $5,000, many of these investors have had ample opportunity to realize substantial gains.

Though some of these investors may have lost conviction, they are also sitting on outsized profits for more than 5 years. It’s only natural that they would sell a bit at some point. Historically, many of the world’s most successful assets have experienced lengthy consolidation phases after periods of explosive growth in the stock market. These consolidation periods often lasted 5, 10, or even 20 years, and are frequently accompanied by widespread skepticism before eventually giving way to powerful new expansion phases.

Ethereum derivatives activity is flashing a fresh signal on Binance, where open interest measured in ETH terms has reached a new all-time high. The move comes as traders reassess Ethereum after a steep drawdown, even as macro and geopolitical uncertainty continue to suppress broader risk appetite.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said the market has become “increasingly difficult to interpret,” with investors and institutions operating against a backdrop of elevated uncertainty tied to tensions between the United States and Iran. That uncertainty is not happening in isolation. According to the analyst, deteriorating economic prospects have made large-scale capital deployment a riskier decision, naturally limiting the willingness of market participants to add exposure.

Still, Ethereum futures are showing renewed signs of speculative demand.

Binance Ethereum Open Interest Hits New High

Darkfost said speculative activity has recently started to revive in derivatives, with Ethereum standing out. The analyst noted that ETH is currently trading roughly 67% below its previous all-time high and has moved into what he described as “an area of extreme oversold conditions” over the past few days.

That weakness appears to have drawn in traders looking to rebuild exposure after months of pressure. “Some traders have not overlooked this opportunity and have chosen to increase their exposure despite the risks,” Darkfost wrote.

The result, according to the post, is a record level of Ethereum positioning on Binance. “As a result, Binance has just recorded a new all time high in Ethereum Open Interest (ETH value), with nearly 3.7 million ETH currently positioned in futures contracts on the platform,” the analyst said.

The figure is notable because it measures positioning in ETH terms rather than only in dollar value. After a large price decline, dollar-denominated open interest can look subdued even when the number of ETH contracts being carried by traders is rising. In this case, the increase suggests that speculative exposure to Ethereum is growing despite the weaker spot price environment.

Binance’s role in that activity has also expanded. Darkfost said the exchange’s share of total Ethereum open interest has risen above 44%, reinforcing its dominant position in the ETH derivatives market.

Traders Shift After Months Of Seller Dominance

The more important question is whether the record open interest reflects bottom-fishing, leveraged hedging, or a more durable change in market positioning. Darkfost’s post points to at least some improvement on the buy side.

“Following Ethereum’s sharp devaluation, traders appear to be gradually returning to the buy side,” the analyst wrote. “On Binance, the weekly average Taker Buy/Sell Ratio has increased from 0.95 to 1.0, reflecting a rebalancing of flows after several months of seller dominance.”

That move from 0.95 to 1.0 does not indicate aggressive upside chasing by itself. Rather, it suggests that flows have moved closer to balance after an extended period in which sellers had the upper hand. In futures markets, that shift can matter because open interest rising alongside improving taker flow often shows that traders are no longer only using derivatives to press downside momentum.

The backdrop remains fragile, however. Higher open interest can amplify moves in either direction, especially when positioning builds during periods of macro stress. If the long side is indeed rebuilding, the market may become more sensitive to forced deleveraging if ETH fails to hold the levels attracting dip buyers.

Darkfost framed the setup cautiously, noting that Ethereum sentiment has “deteriorated significantly in recent months.” Even so, the analyst said more investors now appear willing to take the risk of rebuilding exposure, “particularly on the long side,” after a prolonged stretch of dominant selling pressure across futures markets.

At press time, ETH traded at $1,658.