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Morning Minute: Vanguard Hires ‘Head of Digital Assets’ in Crypto Capitulation

by admin July 8, 2026

written by admin

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

Today’s top news:

Crypto majors fall 2-5% after US strikes at Iran ending ceasefire; BTC at $62k
Vanguard is hiring a head of digital assets as it capitulates into crypto
SEC plans to introduce its crypto rules as soon as this month
Zcash jumped 10% on Tachyon Upgrade progress shows it will be free of counterfeiting issues
CASHCAT soars 13x to $110M as Robinhood Chain memes all jump on Vlad Tenev comments

🏛️ Vanguard, Crypto’s Last Big Holdout, Is Hiring a Head of Digital Assets

Vanguard, the roughly $11T asset manager that spent years telling clients it wouldn’t touch crypto, posted its first-ever Head of Digital Assets role. The job calls for an executive to build a multi-year digital-assets roadmap covering tokenization, stablecoins, custody, and blockchain settlement, and to represent the firm with regulators.

For the most crypto-skeptical name in traditional finance, staffing a senior role dedicated to the space is a real shift. And Vanguard’s resistance wasn’t passive. When BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton rushed into spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, Vanguard refused to even let clients trade them on its brokerage, calling Bitcoin an immature asset class inconsistent with its long-term philosophy. That stance only began to soften last December, when it started allowing brokerage clients to trade third-party crypto funds.

It’s just the latest sign that all the old walls are falling down. Institutional adoption is fully here. Now let’s see if Vanguard’s user base actually wants crypto exposure…

🔒 Zcash Jumps 10% as Tachyon Upgrade Nears a Fix for Its Counterfeiting Scare

Zcash climbed more than 10% on Tuesday, briefly reclaiming $500 for the first time since early June, after developers reported progress on a mathematical proof that its upcoming shielded pool is free of hidden counterfeiting bugs. The move retraced overnight alongside the broader crypto selloff.

The catalyst was Project Tachyon, Zcash’s scaling and privacy overhaul. Founder Zooko Wilcox said the team is close to formally proving that its new “Ironwood” shielded pool contains no undetectable counterfeiting vulnerabilities, the same class of flaw behind June’s Orchard disclosure. That earlier bug, a four-year-old soundness issue, was patched within days and appears never to have been exploited, but Zcash’s privacy model made it impossible to cryptographically prove no counterfeit coins were ever created, which sent ZEC down more than 40% in two days. Ironwood introduces a fresh shielded pool and a migration path that lets users move funds out of Orchard while proving no hidden inflation occurred, and it’s scheduled to deploy this month, with AI-assisted verification compressing work that once took years into weeks.

Beyond the counterfeiting proof, Tachyon aims to scale private transactions to thousands per second, a throughput leap the community likens to Solana’s Firedancer, while also improving quantum readiness by removing onchain data a future quantum attacker could harvest. Privacy, scale, and quantum resistance is quite the combo in 2026. Now the market awaits full confirmation that the earlier bug was not exploited and participants can fully look forward…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors are red down 2-5% after the US struck Iran overnight and declared the ceasefire over; BTC -2% at $62k; ETH -2% at $1,743; SOL -5% at $77; HYPE -4% at $68
MORPHO (+7%), STABLE (+5%) and UNI (+4%) led top movers
Oil +5% at $74; Gold -2% at $4,060
Stock futures are also very red on the ceasefire ending news; DOW -1%, Nasdaq -1.3%
The SEC plans to introduce its long-awaited crypto rules as soon as this month, a “Regulation Crypto” proposal that would create safe harbors and exemptions shielding activities like tokenized securities and DeFi from enforcement
Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve remains a work in progress, with the White House still weighing whether the Treasury or Commerce Department has the legal authority to hold the government’s Bitcoin
India’s central bank said it “leans toward prohibiting” crypto, recommending in government documents that banks and financial institutions be barred from holding, trading, or gaining exposure to crypto assets and private stablecoins to limit risk spillover
Kraken is aiming to secure a full banking license in Europe, which would let the exchange offer bank-like services across the EU
Wintermute called Bitcoin’s recent jump a temporary relief rally rather than a durable bottom
The Coinbase Premium has been negative for 50 straight days, meaning Bitcoin has traded cheaper on the largest US exchange than offshore for nearly two months, a clear sign of weak domestic demand behind July’s rally
The combined market cap of USDT and USDC fell to $257 billion from $268 billion over two months, while Tether burned $2.5B of USDT on Ethereum on July 7 in the latest major reduction

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

The Bitcoin ETFs saw $21M in net inflows on Tuesday, keeping the inflow streak alive; the ETH ETFs saw $27M in inflows
Saylor commented that BTC annual appreciation of 3.3% is all he needs to fund STRC indefinitely (STRC -3% at $86)

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were red down 3-5%; DOGE -4%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -4%, PENGU -7%, TRUMP -4%, BONK -7%
CASHCAT on the Robinhood chain ran over 13x to $110M while multiple other memes surged 5-10x; DogInHood +68x to $7M; Vlad Tenev posted on X that Robinhood Chain is “great for memes too”
Solana memes and onchain leaders got hit hard in the Robinhood chain rotation, with Ansem falling 27%, manlet -64% and CARDS -22%

📈 Myriad Market of the Day

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💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks even at 32.4 ETH, BAYC even at 9.27 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.54 ETH; Hypurr’s -3% at 210 HYPE
Gremlin Cartel (+10x) and Metawinners (+43%) led top movers

Daily Debrief Newsletter

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July 8, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

Trump Says He Embraced Crypto ‘For Politics’

by admin July 7, 2026

written by admin

US President Donald Trump says he got involved in crypto “for politics” and became pro-crypto after seeing how much money the industry was making.

At a press conference in the Oval Office on Monday to announce “Trump Accounts,” an investment account for children under 18, Trump was asked whether the accounts would allow for Bitcoin (BTC).

“I’ve become a big crypto guy only for one reason: If we don’t have it, China’s going to have it,” Trump answered. “I’m a fan, I wasn’t initially, I didn’t know much about it, but, for some of my first term, I wasn’t much involved, and I watched it grow, and it’s a huge industry.”

“I got involved in it a little bit for politics,” Trump added. “I realized there are a lot of people that love crypto.”

The comments shed new light on why Trump pivoted his stance towards crypto. In his first term, Trump said he was “not a fan” of crypto and called Bitcoin “a scam.” Since then, he and his family have built deep business interests in crypto, and Trump has faced criticism for his pro-crypto stance while being connected to the industry.

“As a businessman, I see a lot of money starting to come in with Bitcoin and, you know, the different forms, and I said: ‘This thing’s got a lot of life,’ and then I hear China was going to make a heavy move on it,” he added. “If we didn’t do it, China would do it.”

Trump’s pro-crypto pivot attracted the help of the crypto lobby, which spent around $170 million in the 2024 election to help elect mostly Republicans, and is set to spend even more backing pro-crypto candidates in the November midterms.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters about “Trump Accounts” at the White House on Monday. Source: YouTube

Trump says he doesn’t talk to family about crypto interests

Trump said he doesn’t talk to his family about their involvement in crypto, an area that made him more than $1.4 billion last year, according to financial disclosures released June 30.

Trump and his sons are listed as co-founders of World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform that generated a large portion of Trump’s crypto-related income last year, but the president said his interest in crypto is “not a question of a personal thing.”

Related: Donald Trump says ‘nothing wrong’ with $1.4B crypto windfall while in office

“I let my kids do whatever the hell they do. I don’t talk to them, ever, talk to them about it,” Trump said.

Trump claimed that the Biden administration “dropped all investigations” related to crypto when he “went very pro-crypto.”

However, under the Trump administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission stopped multiple investigations and withdrew or settled enforcement actions filed against crypto companies, some of which had donated to Trump.

“Every time I see a crypto guy where they dropped an investigation, I said: ‘You’re lucky I’m president,” Trump said.

Magazine: SBF will never get a pardon, Trump peace deal boosts Bitcoin: Hodlers Digest

July 7, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

US Bitcoin ETFs Break 10-Day Losing Streak With $222 Million in Inflows as Bitcoin Reclaims $61K

by admin July 5, 2026

written by admin

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended a 10-day streak of net outflows on Thursday, attracting $221.7 million in fresh capital as weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve could ease its monetary stance. The renewed institutional demand helped Bitcoin rebound above $61,000 after falling below $58,000 earlier in the week, offering investors a rare positive signal following one of the sector’s weakest months on record.

According to SoSoValue, Thursday’s inflows were the largest daily total for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in nearly two months, reversing a period that saw investors withdraw approximately $2.73 billion from the funds over the previous 10 trading sessions. The recovery follows a difficult June, during which U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs recorded roughly $4.5 billion in net outflows, making it the industry’s worst month since the products launched in January 2024.

Fidelity Leads Institutional Buying

Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) accounted for the majority of Thursday’s inflows, attracting $165.96 million. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) followed with $91.84 million, while VanEck’s HODL added $4.35 million.

The only major fund to post losses was BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which recorded $40.43 million in net outflows. The world’s largest spot Bitcoin ETF has now experienced several consecutive sessions of investor withdrawals dating back to mid-June, although it remains the dominant fund by assets under management.

While one day of positive flows does little to offset recent selling, it marked the first time since early May that U.S. Bitcoin ETFs collectively attracted more than $200 million in new investments, suggesting institutional sentiment may be stabilizing.

U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF Flows (Source: SosoValue)

Bitcoin Recovers Above $61,000

The improvement in ETF demand coincided with a recovery in Bitcoin’s market price.

Bitcoin had fallen to its lowest level in roughly 21 months earlier this week amid broad macroeconomic uncertainty and continued ETF outflows. However, following Thursday’s economic data, the cryptocurrency climbed back above $61,000, trading around $61,800 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.

The rebound also lifted broader digital asset markets after weeks of pressure driven by concerns that elevated U.S. interest rates would continue weighing on speculative investments.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance on July 03, 2026 (Source: CoinMarketCap)

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance on July 03, 2026 (Source: CoinMarketCap)

Weak Jobs Report Shifts Rate Expectations

The primary catalyst behind Thursday’s recovery was a softer-than-expected U.S. labor market report.

The June employment report showed the U.S. economy added just 57,000 nonfarm payrolls, well below economists’ consensus estimate of around 110,000. The weaker hiring figures strengthened market expectations that the Federal Reserve could adopt a more accommodative policy path if economic growth continues to slow.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh also indicated that inflation risks have eased, helping reinforce expectations that policymakers may not need to tighten monetary policy further.

The shift pushed Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar lower, creating a more supportive environment for non-yielding assets such as Bitcoin. Historically, cryptocurrencies have benefited when expectations for higher interest rates begin to fade.

Analysts Link ETF Demand to Improving Macro Sentiment

Analysts largely attributed Thursday’s ETF inflows to improving macroeconomic conditions rather than crypto-specific developments.

Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, said easing inflation concerns and the Federal Reserve’s softer tone helped improve overall market sentiment, encouraging investors to return to digital assets. He added that the same trend is beginning to benefit spot Ethereum ETFs, which attracted $14.9 million in inflows on Wednesday and another $29.1 million on Thursday, according to SoSoValue.

Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey, likewise argued that previous ETF outflows reflected market pricing in the possibility of additional interest-rate hikes. As expectations for tighter monetary policy have weakened following the latest jobs report, investors have become more willing to allocate capital back into Bitcoin.

U.S. Spot ETH ETF Flows (Source: SosoValue)

U.S. Spot ETH ETF Flows (Source: SosoValue)

Recovery Remains Fragile

Despite Thursday’s encouraging figures, market observers caution that a single day of inflows is not enough to confirm a sustained recovery.

The previous 10-day outflow streak erased more than $2.7 billion from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, while cumulative net flows for 2026 remain deeply negative. Thursday’s $221.7 million inflow therefore represents only a small fraction of the capital that left the market during June.

Historically, Bitcoin bull markets have been supported by consistent institutional buying through ETFs rather than isolated daily inflows. Investors will be watching closely to see whether Thursday’s rebound develops into a broader trend over the coming weeks.

Stephen Wundke, strategy and revenue director at Algoz Technologies, believes recent buyers are taking advantage of oversold conditions after investors rotated heavily into defensive assets such as U.S. Treasury bills during the recent selloff. He noted that declining Treasury yields and easing oil prices point to moderating inflation, potentially improving the outlook for risk assets.

Still, he expects Bitcoin to remain range-bound before establishing a clearer direction. That cautious outlook is reflected in prediction markets, where traders continue assigning a significantly higher probability that Bitcoin’s next major move will be toward $55,000 rather than $84,000.

For now, the return of more than $221 million in ETF inflows provides a welcome boost after weeks of persistent selling. Whether it marks the beginning of renewed institutional accumulation or merely a short-term rebound will depend largely on upcoming U.S. economic data, Federal Reserve policy decisions, and whether ETF demand remains positive in the weeks ahead.

July 5, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

OpenAI Offers US Government a $42 Billion Slice of Itself: Report

by admin July 2, 2026

written by admin

In brief

OpenAI has proposed handing the U.S. government a 5% stake worth roughly $42.6 billion, based on its $852 billion March 2026 valuation, according to the Financial Times.
Sam Altman pitched the idea directly to President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and wants Anthropic, Google, and Meta to contribute similar stakes.
The talks follow a month of escalating government intervention in frontier AI releases—including a delayed GPT-5.6 rollout and a temporary export ban on Anthropic’s top models.

OpenAI has been in talks with the Donald Trump administration about handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the discussions. At OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation from its March funding round, that slice is worth roughly $42.6 billion.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s pitch frames this as democratizing AI’s economic upside—the best way to ensure Americans share in the industry’s growth. He raised the idea directly with President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the FT.

The proposed structure would model a sovereign wealth vehicle like the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-owned fund established in 1976 to invest surplus oil revenues and pay annual dividends to state residents.

The proposal doesn’t stop at OpenAI. Altman reportedly wants other major U.S. AI developers—Anthropic, Google, Meta—to cede a similar 5% to the government through the same vehicle. None of those companies have signaled any interest in joining as of yet.

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OpenAI launched GPT-5.6 in limited form just days earlier, after the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director asked for a restricted rollout while officials develop a testing framework for frontier AI. That was the second government intervention of the month—Anthropic spent most of June in lockdown on Mythos 5 and Fable 5 while under emergency export controls, after the Defense Department previously labeled the company a “supply chain risk,” before access was restored this week.

OpenAI has been more supportive than Anthropic when it comes to its deals with the U.S. government, signing partnerships where Anthropic refused.

Equity has become the administration’s preferred tool for managing tech relationships. The government took a 9.9% stake in Intel last August, paying $8.9 billion by converting CHIPS Act grants into shares at $20.47 each—a position now worth well over $50 billion. AMD and Nvidia agreed to hand over 15% of their China chip revenues in exchange for export licenses. Trump said in May he should have negotiated a larger stake in Intel.

The FT characterized the discussions as conceptual and early-stage, adding that any arrangement could require Congressional approval.

The deal, if it materializes, would mark the first time Washington holds equity in a private AI company. For OpenAI—navigating a confidential IPO filing and a probe from a coalition of 42 state attorneys general—the deal may be worth it.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who met with Altman in recent weeks, is pushing a bill that would require the largest AI companies to surrender 50% of their equity to a public fund, with proceeds flowing to Americans as direct payments. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidentially for IPOs, meaning that any potential government stake agreed now would precede the ownership dilution that comes with a public float.

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July 2, 2026 0 comments

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Circle CEO Challenges Ousd Consortium Model

by admin July 1, 2026

written by admin

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire argued that USDC’s decade-long network of integrations, liquidity and regulatory infrastructure gives it a structural advantage over new stablecoin entrants, while challenging key elements of Open USD’s proposed business model.

In a Wednesday X post, Allaire described stablecoin networks as platform businesses driven by network effects, saying sustained investment in integrations, liquidity, regulatory approvals, banking relationships and reserve management creates competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate.

He also questioned whether permanently offering free, unlimited minting and redemption would remain sustainable at scale and said returning nearly all reserve income to partners risks “starving an infrastructure.”

The comments highlight intensifying competition among stablecoin issuers as new entrants seek to challenge USDC and USDT by offering businesses a greater share of reserve income and influence over governance.

Open Standard announced Open USD (OUSD) on Tuesday, with support from over 140 payments, banking, technology and crypto companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock and Google. The stablecoin is expected to go live later in 2026.

Circle’s stock performance in the last five days. Source: Yahoo Finance

Circle shares closed Tuesday at $62.63, down 17.55% from the previous session, before rising 2.44% to $64.18 in premarket trading as of 11 am UTC on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Finance data.

OUSD could challenge the Circle-Tether duopoly: Bernstein

In a research note, analysts at Bernstein said OUSD could become the “strongest and first new entrant to challenge the duopoly of Circle and Tether,” citing its reach across payments, banking, technology and commerce.

However, Bernstein said governance, operational architecture and the revenue-sharing formula remain open questions, as coordinating more than 140 partners will require substantial work. Bernstein said Circle spends close to $500 million on marketing, infrastructure, technology and compliance, highlighting the amount of resources needed to scale a stablecoin network.

Related: MetaMask launches stablecoin yield account with card spending

Lorenzo Valente, director of research at ARK Invest, took a more skeptical view. In a post on X, Valente said that OUSD still faces the cold-start problem created by USDC and USDT’s entrenched liquidity across the crypto ecosystem. He called the announcement a “giant” letter of intent and said that many participants also support competing stablecoins or operate their own infrastructure.

“The partners are backing rivals: Stripe owns Bridge and has its own stack, Coinbase is wedded to USDC, banks are building their own deposit tokens and the card networks support every token out there,” Valente wrote.

Magazine: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express

July 1, 2026 0 comments

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CZ Wants to Make the U.S. the ‘Capital of Crypto’

by admin June 30, 2026

written by admin

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is making his most visible return to the American stage yet — and this time, he arrives bearing a mission rather than just an apology. CZ sat down with CoinDesk for a pair of interviews earlier this month, sharing his views on the exchange he founded, crypto’s trajectory in the U.S., and his post-prison activities. Across both conversations, the message was strikingly consistent: the United States has fundamentally turned a corner on crypto policy, and CZ intends to plant himself at the center of what comes next — whether Washington is entirely ready for that or not.

A Pardoned Man With a Plan

CZ resigned as Binance CEO in November 2023 after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged he violated the Bank Secrecy Act. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024, and completed his sentence by September. In October 2025, he received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.

That pardon proved the critical turning point for his reentry into American public life. In a post on X shortly after, Zhao vowed to “help make America the capital of crypto and advance Web3 worldwide.” Since then he has appeared at Consensus Miami, held meetings with Washington policymakers, and given his most detailed public remarks yet about Binance’s U.S. ambitions. “We want to do more in the U.S., and personally, I really want to help make the U.S. the capital of crypto,” he told CoinDesk. “I want to bring more crypto services into America.”

Binance Founder – Changpeng “CZ” Zhao

The Liquidity Gap Hurting American Traders

Beneath the headline ambitions sits a specific, data-grounded argument about what is structurally broken in the U.S. crypto market. CZ believes the U.S. is fundamentally disadvantaged by lower liquidity compared to global exchanges, meaning American consumers pay higher trading fees and face wider slippage on every transaction. “U.S. consumers don’t have access to the best liquidity,” he said. “That means they pay a much higher price to buy and sell crypto.”

The framing is pointed: crypto is the only place where U.S. consumers — operating within the largest capital markets in the world — do not get the best prices. With 80% of global GDP sitting outside the U.S. and other countries actively welcoming crypto activity, he argued there is no guarantee that domestic-only exchange growth closes the pricing gap fast enough to matter.

His proposed solution is to allow Binance.US to access Binance Global’s deeper order book. “We would love to be able to provide that in some way, either revitalize Binance.US or somehow provide U.S. consumers the best liquidity in the world and the best prices,” CZ said at Consensus Miami 2026.

CZ wants to make the U.S. the ‘capital of crypto

CZ wants to make the U.S. the ‘capital of crypto

Ownership Without Operations

A recurring and carefully managed theme in CZ’s reemergence is the distinction between owning companies and running them. “I’m still the single largest shareholder of Binance, but I don’t run Binance,” he said. The same applies to Binance.US, where he now sits as a board member rather than an operator. Despite both companies sharing CZ as majority shareholder, they maintain separate leaderships and different investor groups — “two very separate companies,” in his words. Zhao ruled out directly leading Binance.US, expressing a clear preference for informally advising founders and portfolio companies rather than taking any executive seat.

Diagnosing the 2026 Bear Market

CZ’s return has coincided with a painful stretch for the broader crypto market. Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $126,000 last October and has since dropped approximately 50%, trading near $60,000 at the time of CoinDesk’s interviews. It opened 2026 near $89,000, briefly climbed above $96,000, then declined steadily.

CZ cited multiple drivers behind the downturn: investors rotating capital into AI, geopolitical tensions, and the typical four-year crypto market cycle. He remained measured rather than alarmed. “There’s going to be more and more demand for financial technologies, because there will be more and more transactions, so the industry will grow. So I’m not worried about the industry or the short-term price fluctuations,” he said. On the AI rotation specifically, he argued that capital moving into emerging technology sectors would ultimately prove positive for the broader digital asset ecosystem long term.

Regulation: Real Progress, Still Incomplete

CZ’s Washington tour has inevitably involved commentary on the regulatory environment that once made the U.S. hostile territory for Binance. He credited the passage of the GENIUS Act — establishing a federal stablecoin framework — as a meaningful step. On the broader Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, however, he struck a more tempered tone. He described such bills as “small, tactical things, which are really important, but not gonna impact the growth of crypto longer-term,” adding that U.S. regulatory leadership would likely persist even if the Clarity Act fails to pass this year. At the same time, he warned that delays risk ceding America’s competitive position to countries that move faster to establish their own frameworks.

The Stakes of the Comeback

According to Forbes, Zhao is currently the 17th-richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $111.1 billion as of April 2026 — much of it tied to BNB, giving him enormous personal stakes in the health of the very market he is championing. In 2026, he is building again through investments via YZi Labs and ongoing conversations with governments on crypto policy, but the biggest challenge that remains is trust following his legal case and pardon.

Whether CZ can convert his renewed access — to Washington, to regulators, to the American builder community — into concrete improvements in U.S. market structure is still an open question. But for an industry that spent years watching its biggest names retreat from American shores, the world’s most recognizable crypto founder now actively lobbying for U.S. dominance in digital assets is a signal that the political and regulatory winds have shifted in ways that seemed unthinkable just two years ago.

June 30, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

Wall Street’s Next Tokenization Test: BlackRock-Backed Securitize’s Market Debut

by admin June 27, 2026

written by admin

In brief

Securitize expects to begin trading next week under the ticker symbol “SECZ,” following the completion of a merger with a blank-check firm.
The debut of the BlackRock-backed tokenization specialist will test Wall Street’s appetite for companies tied to the emerging market.
The company’s debut on the NYSE comes as the SEC wrestles with an innovation exemption for tokenized stocks.

Whether Wall Street’s interest in tokenization translates into demand for companies closely tied to the technology is set to be tested next week alongside Securitize’s expected debut.

The BlackRock-backed firm, which specializes in digital representations of real-world assets, announced plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SECZ,” following the completion of a merger with a Cantor Fitzgerald-backed blank-check firm.

The transaction’s realization inched closer this week when investors owning less than 30% of Cantor Equity Partners II’s common shares elected to redeem their holdings in the SPAC. As a result, Securitize expects to receive roughly $400 million in proceeds from the combination and related private financing ahead of the deal’s closing.

Securitize’s public debut, coming eight years after the firm was established, marks a pivotal milestone for tokenization, underscoring the technology’s shift from abstract market plumbing to an emerging bedrock for modern finance, according to CEO Carlos Domingo.

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“The idea that major institutions would embrace tokenized securities was still largely theoretical,” he said. “Today, tokenization is moving into the mainstream, and we believe becoming a public company gives us the visibility, credibility, and capital to lead.”

In recent years, Securitize has become a familiar resource for institutions beyond the world’s largest asset manager—which tapped the firm for a tokenized money market fund in 2024—such as Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, and KKR. In March, Securitize unveiled an agreement with the NYSE itself to develop systems for blockchain-native securities.

Securitize noted that, as of June, the company had more than $4 billion worth of assets under management. By far, the largest product that the firm services is BlackRock’s BUIDL, which was valued at $2.4 billion on Friday, according to RWA.xyz.

As infrastructure giants like DTCC wade deeper into the space, Domingo has advocated for “native” tokenization, arguing that securities must be issued directly on-chain rather than wrapped in digital shells in order to achieve their full potential at scale.

Last month, the SEC reportedly delayed an innovation exemption for tokenized stocks after concerns were raised about third-party issuers, which have the potential to complicate corporate actions and governance duties via tokens issued on-chain, per Bloomberg.

Since becoming SEC chair, Paul Atkins has described tokenization as technology that has the “potential to transform markets” through streamlined trading, echoing comments made by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink during the crypto market depths in 2022.

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June 27, 2026 0 comments

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Bitcoin Options Traders Brace for Volatility

by admin June 25, 2026

written by admin

Bitcoin options traders remain heavily positioned for downside protection, with both crypto-native and exchange-traded fund investors showing elevated demand for downside hedges, according to new research by Anchorage Digital’s head of research, David Lawant.

The report analyzed options activity across Deribit, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Strategy (MSTR), saying the three markets together provide a broader view of crypto-native, institutional and retail investor sentiment than any single options market alone.

Both Deribit and IBIT options markets showed elevated put skew, indicating traders are paying a premium for downside protection rather than positioning for further gains. The report found defensive positioning ranked in the 82nd percentile of IBIT’s history and the 84th percentile of Deribit’s five-year history.

Anchorage also found that Bitcoin (BTC) options markets have spent nearly half of 2026 pricing higher implied volatility over the next week than over the next month, an unusual inversion that has historically been episodic and short-lived. The report attributed the pattern to a succession of macroeconomic, geopolitical and crypto-specific catalysts that have kept traders focused on near-term risks.

Bitcoin options 30-day/7-day implied volatility ratio. Source: Anchorage Digital report

Taken together, the findings suggest options traders remain focused on managing near-term risks rather than positioning for a clear directional move. Lawant said he is watching for one-month implied volatility to once again exceed one-week implied volatility, a shift he said would indicate markets are becoming more comfortable looking beyond immediate risks.

Related: Bitcoin price is down over 40% since STRC launched: Is Strategy ‘fine’?

Options market not signaling Strategy crisis

The analysis from Anchorage Digital also suggests investors remain cautious but are not pricing a severe downside scenario for Strategy despite recent weakness in the company’s preferred and common shares.

Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock, STRC, fell as low as $82.53 on June 22, or about 17% below its $100 par value, before partially recovering after the company disclosed it had increased its fiat reserves to $1.3 billion. As of Thursday, it was trading around $77, roughly 23% below par.

The weakness has extended beyond STRC. Strategy’s common shares (MSTR) were down about 78% over the past year and traded around $87 on Thursday, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Strategy stock. Source: Yahoo Finance

Despite the sell-off, Anchorage found that Strategy’s options market remains well below stress levels seen during previous market corrections. While traders continue to hedge against downside risk, put skew has not reached levels typically associated with fears of forced deleveraging or a broader crisis, according to the report.

Strategy, led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, pioneered the corporate Bitcoin treasury model in 2020 and remains the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 847,363 BTC on its balance sheet.

30-day risk reversals in Strategy (MSTR) options markets. Source: Anchorage Digital report

Magazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

June 25, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

Morgan Stanley Sets 0.14% Fees for Ethereum and Solana ETFs, Undercutting All US Rivals

by admin June 24, 2026

written by admin

Morgan Stanley has moved to claim the lowest fee position in two crypto ETF categories simultaneously, filing second-amended S-1 registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for spot Ethereum and Solana funds that each carry a 0.14% annual sponsor fee. The filings, submitted on June 18, 2026, set 0.14% sponsor fees on the proposed spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs — the lowest disclosed rate in each US market. Both funds will trade on NYSE Arca under tickers MSSE and MSOL.

The move extends a consistent pricing playbook Morgan Stanley has applied across its crypto product lineup and puts direct fee pressure on incumbents in both markets.

What the Filings Contain

The two products — the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL) — are structured as grantor trusts that hold spot ETH and SOL directly. The 0.14% sponsor fee is calculated on net asset value (NAV), accrues daily, and is paid monthly from trust assets. Investors see the fee reflected in the fund’s tracking performance rather than as a separate line-item charge.

These are the second round of amendments for both filings, which were originally submitted in January 2026. The June 18 filing marks the first time a specific fee was confirmed for either product; prior amendments in March and May added structural details like the proposed MSOL ticker and the staking component, but left the fee blank. Additional amendments typically indicate active dialogue between an issuer and the SEC and generally signal that a launch is approaching.

Staking Built Into Both Products

Beyond spot price exposure, both ETFs include staking provisions that make them yield-generating instruments rather than passive tracking vehicles. Morgan Stanley’s filings direct 95% of staking rewards back to fund shareholders, with the remaining 5% allocated to named infrastructure providers: Figment Inc., Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure LLC, and Coinbase Canada Inc. This structure effectively provides both ETFs with yield-enhanced spot exposure, which is particularly significant for Solana, where native on-chain staking yields are meaningfully higher than Ethereum’s.

The filing also noted that staked ether remains exposed to slashing — the network penalty for validator faults — a risk disclosure regulators have been closely scrutinizing as staking mechanics become more common in ETF structures.

Fee Comparison: Below Every Existing Rival

Grayscale’s Mini Ethereum Trust currently holds the lowest fee among Ethereum ETFs at 0.15%, while Franklin Templeton’s Solana ETF carries the lowest Solana fee at 0.19%. Morgan Stanley’s proposed 0.14% undercuts Grayscale by one basis point on Ethereum and Franklin Templeton by five basis points on Solana. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described the pricing as the cheapest available for both asset classes in the US and globally.

One basis point may appear insignificant in isolation, but in the institutional ETF market it carries real weight. Fee-sensitive allocators operating under return mandates or cost caps systematically favour the cheapest equivalent product, and a global fee record creates a marketing anchor that draws assets regardless of the magnitude of the difference.

Existing US spot Ethereum ETF products from issuers including BlackRock and Fidelity have generally proposed fees in the 0.20–0.30% range, meaning Morgan Stanley’s MSSE would undercut the broader Ethereum ETF field by a wider margin still.

The Bitcoin Playbook, Applied Again

Morgan Stanley’s MSBT launched on April 8, 2026, as the first spot Bitcoin ETF from a major US bank, pulling in over $100 million in its first eight days entirely from self-directed clients. MSBT charges 0.14% annually, the lowest fee of any Bitcoin ETF on the market, undercutting BlackRock’s IBIT at 0.25%, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust at 0.15%, and Bitwise at 0.20%.

Within its first month, MSBT attracted $193.6 million in total inflows with zero outflows during that entire period. The early performance validated the pricing strategy: late market entry offset by aggressive fee positioning captured meaningful share from incumbents. Morgan Stanley is applying that same logic to Ethereum and Solana, entering each market after other issuers have established products but doing so at a fee level no existing fund matches.

Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust Price Performance (Source: Morgan Stanley)

Market Position and Approval Outlook

If approved, MSSE would become a new entrant in an established Ethereum ETF market, and MSOL would join the Solana ETF category. The second amendment status of both filings is a meaningful procedural signal. S-1 amendments at this stage typically reflect an issuer and the SEC working through final structural questions — in this case, primarily around staking mechanics, the 5% provider fee allocation, and custody arrangements.

Morgan Stanley oversees $9.3 trillion in total client assets across 16,000 financial advisors, a distribution network that no pure asset manager can replicate. If MSSE and MSOL receive approval and are made available to advisors on Morgan Stanley’s wealth management platform — something MSBT was not during its initial weeks — the potential inflow base expands substantially beyond what fee leadership alone would drive.

Broader Context: Fee Competition Intensifies

The MSSE and MSOL filings arrive as the crypto ETF market continues to expand rapidly. The fee war that began in the Bitcoin ETF category following the January 2024 spot BTC approvals is now playing out on a second front across Ethereum and Solana simultaneously. Issuers that entered the Ethereum ETF market in mid-2024 and the Solana ETF market more recently now face direct pressure to either cut fees or differentiate on other dimensions — staking yield, liquidity, or brand.

For investors, Morgan Stanley’s filings represent two products that combine the lowest available fee in each category with built-in staking yield, delivered through a regulated brokerage account wrapper. Approval timelines remain subject to SEC review, but the structural direction is clear: the cost of crypto ETF exposure is continuing to fall, and Morgan Stanley is leading that compression.

June 24, 2026 0 comments

NFT Marketplace

AI ‘Amplification Spiral’ May Be Causing Delusions Among Users, Study Suggests

by admin June 21, 2026

written by admin

In brief

Researchers proposed an “amplification spiral” framework to explain how AI chatbots may reinforce delusional beliefs.
The model centers on linguistic alignment, hyper-personalized responses, and chatbot sycophancy.
The authors stress that no causal link between AI use and psychosis has been established.

Researchers have proposed a new framework to explain reports of AI psychosis, arguing that certain chatbot behaviors may reinforce delusions in vulnerable users.

Published in Nature, the study out of King’s College London and Germany’s Protestant University of Applied Sciences proposes an “amplification spiral” framework that links common chatbot behaviors to the reinforcement of user delusions.

“AI-associated delusions represent an emerging phenomenon requiring mechanistic understanding,” the researchers wrote. “This framework aims to guide systematic inquiry into how human cognitive vulnerabilities interact with AI design features in psychopathology development.”

The study focused on three specific behaviors, including linguistic alignment, in which AI mirrors a user’s language and communication style; hyperpersonalized generation, where responses are tailored to an individual’s history, emotions, and beliefs; and sycophancy, a tendency to validate or agree with users rather than challenge them.

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The authors argue that these traits can combine into a feedback loop in which chatbots not only reflect a user’s thinking but help elaborate and reinforce it over time.

“The tendency of AI chatbots to agree with user opinions has been likened to social media echo chambers and, in its most extreme form, to an ‘echo chamber of one,’ where the positive corrective influence of real-life social interactions is absent,” the paper said.

The researchers noted that technology has long featured in delusions, from the radio and television, to satellites and the internet. Researchers argue, however, that AI represents a shift because chatbots can engage users in prolonged, personalized conversations.

The review arrives as psychologists and AI researchers examine the effects of chatbots on vulnerable users. A recent survey by the American Psychological Association found that 15% of psychologists reported patients developing distorted thinking or delusions related to chatbot use. At the same time, more than a third said they had observed patients becoming dependent on AI companions. The findings followed a separate study from researchers at the City University of New York and King’s College London showing that several leading AI models could reinforce delusions, paranoia, and suicidal thoughts.

Questions about AI’s influence on belief formation have also surfaced outside clinical settings. In May, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins said extended conversations with Anthropic’s Claude chatbot left him questioning whether advanced AI systems could be conscious, drawing criticism from researchers who argued the exchanges reflected the persuasive capabilities of large language models rather than evidence of sentience.

The paper also comes as AI developers face growing legal scrutiny over the role chatbots may play in real-world harm. In recent months, OpenAI, Google, and xAI have been hit with lawsuits, including a wrongful death suit against Google over claims that Gemini fueled a Florida man’s delusions before his suicide. That’s in addition to lawsuits against OpenAI tied to a mass shooting in British Columbia and a college student’s accidental overdose.

The researchers emphasize that no study has shown chatbots directly cause psychosis, and the amplification spiral remains a hypothesis intended to guide future research.

“Diagnostic uncertainty is pervasive as most reported cases include no structured psychiatric assessment or longitudinal follow-up, making it frequently unclear whether cases represent de novo psychotic episodes, exacerbations of undiagnosed pre-existing conditions, or delusion-like beliefs below diagnostic threshold,” the study said. “Psychiatric histories are often self-reported or derived from media accounts and should be interpreted accordingly.”

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June 21, 2026 0 comments

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