Crypto World
Elon Musk’s X hires crypto-savvy design lead as X Money payments push inches closer
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has hired a new head of design with deep roots in crypto product development, as the platform continues to expand into payments and financial services.
Benji Taylor said in Wednesday post that he now leads design for X under its ties to xAI and SpaceX.
Taylor founded Los Feliz Engineering, the team behind self-custody crypto wallet Family. Aave Labs, the development firm behind $42 billion decentralized lender Aave, acquired the company in 2023, after which Taylor served as chief product officer until October 2025. Most recently, he was head of design at Base, the Ethereum-based blockchain network built by crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN).
X product lead Nikita Bier said he had tracked Taylor’s work for years and pushed to bring him on, calling one of his past products among the best designed he had seen.
The hire adds a designer with hands-on crypto experience at a time when X telegraphed its plans to roll out features to support payments and broader financial features on the platform.
Earlier this month, Musk said that X Money is set to launch in April, offering peer-to-peer transactions, bank deposits, a debit card and cashback rewards in more than 40 U.S. states. It was also proposed to pay a 6% yield on balances.
However, there wasn’t any mention of blockchain or crypto element in X Money at the time.
Bitpanda said Wednesday it is building Vision Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 that the Vienna-based broker said is aimed at helping European banks and fintechs issue and manage tokenized assets using infrastructure designed for compatibility with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II.
Bitpanda is pitching Vision Chain as a layer-2 for tokenized assets, combining Optimism’s OP Stack with institutional custody and compliance tooling so that regulated companies in Europe can tokenize and trade traditional assets such as stocks, bonds and funds on an Ethereum-based rollup.
Bitpanda argued that this positioning, along with its existing bank partnerships in Germany and Austria, will make it easier for traditional institutions to go onchain than building their own infrastructure from scratch.
The company is also leaning on a broader macro case around asset tokenization. Market research company Mordor Intelligence estimated that the asset tokenization market will grow from around $2.08 trillion in 2025 to $13.55 trillion by 2030, implying a compound annual growth rate of roughly 45% as more real-world assets (RWAs) move onchain.
Related: Bybit launches yield-bearing tokenized gold product tied to XAUT
Tokenization goes from crypto thesis to capital markets agenda
Vision Chain joins an increasingly crowded tokenization race that now includes trading names like Robinhood and incumbents such as Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, which are piloting blockchain-based infrastructure and extended trading hours to attract more institutional flows.
Earlier this week, Nasdaq teamed up with Talos on a tokenized collateral platform that aims to unlock more than $35 billion of currently trapped collateral, while institutional networks like Canton are running live experiments with tokenized US Treasurys, money market funds and other RWAs for banks and market infrastructure giants.
Founded in Vienna in 2014, Bitpanda says it now serves over seven million users across Europe through its investing platform and B2B infrastructure offerings.
The company also presents itself as one of Europe’s most regulated crypto companies, though an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists-linked investigation published in January, citing internal documents and audit findings at Bitpanda’s German subsidiary, reported deficiencies including information security weaknesses and poor oversight of outsourced functions.
Cointelegraph reached out to Bitpanda for additional information, but had not received a response by publication.
Big Questions: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?
TLDR:
- Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance are tokenizing five ETFs spanning equities, bonds, and gold.
- Tokens trade 24/7 through crypto wallets, removing the need for traditional brokerage accounts.
- The tokenized real-world asset market has surged 360% since 2025, now valued at $26.5 billion.
- US availability remains on hold pending regulatory clarity on on-chain fund distribution rules.
Tokenized ETFs are entering a new phase as Franklin Templeton teams up with Ondo Finance on a new product line. The partnership will bring blockchain-based versions of Franklin’s exchange-traded funds to international markets.
These products will trade around the clock through crypto wallets, removing the need for traditional brokerage accounts.
Initial availability covers Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America. US access depends on further regulatory guidance from authorities.
How the Tokenized ETF Structure Works
Under the arrangement, Ondo Finance will purchase shares of the Franklin Templeton ETFs directly. It will then issue tokens through a special-purpose vehicle that transfers financial exposure to holders.
Investors will own rights to the return stream, not the underlying fund shares. This structure allows the tokens to serve as collateral or within decentralized finance applications.
Five funds are lined up for tokenization as part of this rollout. They include a growth-oriented US equity strategy, a systematic large-cap equity fund, and a gold fund.
A high-yield corporate bond fund and an income-focused US equity strategy also make the list. These products span equities, fixed income, and commodities.
Ondo’s market makers will provide liquidity for the tokens at all hours. This includes periods when traditional stock and bond markets remain closed.
As a result, investors gain continuous access without the trading restrictions tied to standard ETFs. The setup also removes the need for cross-border brokerage accounts entirely.
Franklin Templeton already offers international versions of its US strategies through conventional brokerage channels. However, those products still require investors to hold brokerage accounts.
The tokenized versions remove that barrier entirely. Sandy Kaul, Franklin’s head of innovation, described the initiative plainly: “You can think of this as a new distribution channel. These ETFs represent a good mix of different exposures.”
Market Growth and Regulatory Challenges
The tokenized real-world asset market has grown roughly 360% since 2025, reaching $26.5 billion according to rwa.xyz. Despite this growth, the US has not established formal rules for distributing registered funds on-chain.
This regulatory gap remains the primary obstacle for products targeting US investors. Both firms are watching how regulators respond before expanding further.
Ian De Bode, president of Ondo Finance, addressed the regulatory gap directly. “This is an area where the US risks falling behind other jurisdictions,” he said.
He also described the potential user base as “meaningful,” with millions of investors relying on crypto wallets. Franklin Templeton manages approximately $1.7 trillion in assets, while Ondo holds around $2.7 billion in tokenized assets.
Other major firms are also pursuing tokenized fund strategies. BlackRock and WisdomTree have announced plans for tokenizing ETFs in the US.
The New York Stock Exchange recently partnered with Securitize to support tokenized securities. Nasdaq also teamed up with digital-asset firm Talos to connect crypto trading tools.
Integrating blockchain ownership with traditional ETF systems remains a technical challenge. Broker-dealers and authorized participants handle share creation under current market rules.
Accommodating non-KYC wallets while complying with securities laws adds further complexity to product design. Still, firms continue advancing these structures as demand from crypto-native investors grows.
Franklin Templeton is teaming with Ondo Finance to bring tokenized versions of its exchange-traded funds onchain, allowing investors to access them through crypto wallets.
The partnership opens a new distribution channel beyond brokerage accounts as asset managers experiment with blockchain-based delivery and 24/7 market access. The tie-up was first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by Ondo on X.
The products will initially be available across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America, with US access dependent on regulatory clarity.
Under the structure, Ondo will purchase shares of Franklin Templeton ETFs and issue tokens through a special-purpose vehicle that transfers economic exposure to holders, Bloomberg reported. Investors receive rights to returns rather than the underlying shares, allowing tokens to be used as collateral or integrated into DeFi applications.
The offering targets investors operating primarily through crypto wallets and stablecoins, bypassing traditional brokerage infrastructure. Liquidity will be provided by Ondo’s market makers, including outside standard trading hours.
The initial rollout will include five funds spanning US equities, fixed income and gold, with tokens distributed through Ondo Global Markets, according to Bloomberg. Requests for further information from both companies were not immediately answered.
The launch follows increased regulatory clarity for Ondo. In December, the US Securities and Exchange Commission closed a multi-year investigation into the company without bringing charges.
Related: Binance and Franklin Templeton join forces on tokenization ventures
Tokenized equities expand, but US access lags
The move by Ondo Finance and Franklin Templeton comes as tokenized equity markets have expanded rapidly over the past year, with total value rising from roughly $500 million in early 2025 to about $950 million as of March 2026, according to RWA.xyz data.
At the time of writing, Ondo Finance leads the sector, accounting for roughly $562 million in value, or about 60% of the market. Other platforms, including Backed Finance and its xStocks products, as well as Securitize, account for significant but smaller portions of the market.
However, as tokenized equity products expand and total value grows, access remains limited, with most offerings concentrated outside the United States.
In February, Kraken introduced tokenized equity perpetual futures on its regulated derivatives platform, offering eligible non-US clients 24/7 leveraged exposure to US stock indexes, gold and companies such as Nvidia, Apple and Tesla.
Last week, Coinbase launched stock perpetual futures for eligible non-US users, extending round-the-clock access to equities alongside crypto and prediction markets.
Still, efforts are underway within the US to build regulated infrastructure for tokenized equities. On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange signed an agreement with Securitize to explore blockchain-based trading of stocks and ETFs, though it remains unclear when or how such products would become available to US investors.
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
Bitcoin (BTC) is testing the $71,500 pivot, a key level across multiple timeframes and analysts noted that price action is tilted toward a possible rally to $80,000.
As traders remain split between futures-driven speculation and weak spot demand, Bitcoin has tested the $71,500 inflection point four times in the past seven days. A positive is that the price has held above the 50-period exponential moving average (EMA) on the four-hour chart, but the 50-day EMA on the daily chart continues to act as a level of resistance.
Will $80,000 be Bitcoin’s next stop?
Crypto trader Skew described the position as a “compression zone,” where the tightening price range and trading may lead to a strong directional move.
A bullish inverse head and shoulders pattern is also forming on the four-hour chart, with $71,500 acting as the neckline.
A confirmed breakout places the immediate technical target near monthly highs at $76,000, a 7.35% move from current levels. Market analyst Mikybull extends this projection toward $80,000.
Another onchain signal points to the possibility of a 10% to 14% Bitcoin rally. The seven-day standard deviation of short-term holder realized profit and loss flows to Binance dropped to 255 on March 24, returning to a level seen before prior rallies.
A similar reading near 277 on Feb. 27 was followed by a 14% rise, while a level around 289 in late December preceded a near 10% gain. The current compression shows a decline in sell-side volatility, with the short-term holder distribution becoming more controlled.
Related: Bitcoin holders shift from panic to cash-buffer discipline as volatility deepens
Bitcoin orderflow data remains split
The recent price strength followed market optimism tied to a potential ceasefire in the US and Israel-Iran war, but on Wednesday, Iran rejected the US peace proposal and outlined its own conditions for ending the conflict, according to the Kobeissi Letter.
BTC held steady through the update, while sensitivity to the US dollar strength and energy prices continues to guide short-term reactions.
The derivatives positioning shows increased activity. BTC open interest (in terms of USD) has risen by $500 million to $16.5 billion over the past 24 hours, with funding rates turning positive at 0.03% since Monday. The latest rally toward $70,000 was driven largely by futures markets.
The spot participation lags, with a weak aggregate cumulative volume delta of -$87 million and a negative Coinbase premium signaling softening US-based demand. Thus, the order flow data points to a distributive nature between buyers and sellers across the spot and futures markets.
Skew explained that for Bitcoin to sustain a breakout above $71,500, the rally needs to be backed by stronger underlying demand, specifically, strong buyer support, steady accumulation, and continued absorption of selling pressure from short traders.
A $60 million bid was filled during the New York session, highlighting renewed demand, but a clear follow-through is needed for the price to retain a bullish structure above $71,500.
Related: Bitcoin rebounds during Iran war, but safe haven role unproven
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
A breakdown of DeFi’s yield sources reveals that borrowing demand, trading fees, and funding rates drove the bulk of returns, while more than half of stablecoin deposits in the Ethereum ecosystem are earning less than U.S. Treasuries.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) produced roughly $8 billion in onchain yield in 2025, according to a detailed analysis published by researcher Vadym that maps the full spectrum of where DeFi returns actually originate. The breakdown reveals that yield is abundant in aggregate but unevenly distributed, often circular, and in many cases difficult to package into structured products.
The findings land as yields across DeFi have dried up. Borrowing rates on major lending platforms have converged with the Federal Reserve’s policy rate, and “safe” stablecoin supply rates now average roughly 3% — below U.S. Treasuries and the Secured Overnight Financing Rate. On Aave, the 30-day average yield on USDC and USDT sits around 2%. Out of more than $20 billion in stablecoin vaults across Ethereum and its Layer 2s, 58% of TVL is earning under 3% APY, the report notes.
Where the $8 Billion Comes From
The analysis identifies five primary yield sources, each with distinct risk profiles and scalability constraints.
AMM trading fees were the largest single category at roughly $4.2 billion, with Uniswap, Meteora, and Raydium accounting for 62% of the total. But the analysis cautions that these fees are notoriously difficult to capture in structured products. Liquidity providers — particularly those using concentrated liquidity — frequently lose money to toxic order flow, and LP-manager vaults have failed to gain meaningful traction.
Borrow interest generated approximately $1.76 billion across money markets, including Aave, Morpho, Spark, Maple and Fluid. Money markets account for more than 60% of total DeFi TVL, making lending the sector’s economic backbone. However, the analysis found that roughly half of all borrowing demand is recursive — users borrowing to loop back into other yield sources, such as liquid staking tokens or yield-bearing stablecoins. On Aave’s Ethereum deployment, about 39% of borrowing demand goes toward leveraging ETH staking rewards, while another 11.6% loops Ethena’s sUSDe.
Perps funding fees, largely pioneered onchain by Ethena, contributed around $300 million. Ethena’s sUSDe derives its yield from staking rewards and short funding rates — a mechanism that drew both praise and alarm when it launched in 2024.
Real-world assets generated an estimated $600–900 million, with U.S. Treasuries holding the largest share of the RWA market at about 41% and private credit at 25%.
Network staking rewards and MEV comprise the remainder, with Ethereum’s issuance totaling roughly one million ETH in 2025. The MEV-derived portion of staking yield has been trending downward as private order flow routing — now handling about 90% of swaps — has reduced frontrunning opportunities.
Untapped and Underdeveloped Sources
The analysis also highlights categories where yield capture remains negligible. Insurance underwriting generated just $5.5 million in premiums in 2025, mostly through Nexus Mutual. Options — despite CeFi open interest of $30–50 billion — have roughly $1.8 billion in onchain OI with no breakout structured product. Volatility selling and protocol risk transfer remain largely untapped, which the analysis flags as a potential opportunity as risk curation grows more competitive.
Sky’s Balancing Act
As a case study in how protocols assemble these disparate yield sources, the analysis examines Sky (formerly MakerDAO), whose 3.75% USDS Savings Rate has attracted significant capital amid the compression. Sky’s TVL surged 38% in March, making it the fourth-largest DeFi protocol, with the sUSDS savings pool alone accounting for approximately $6.5 billion in deposits.
The breakdown reveals that approximately 70% of Sky’s income derives from offchain origination — primarily USDC earning Coinbase rewards through the peg stability module (PSM), and RWA exposure through products like BlackRock’s BUIDL and Janus Henderson funds. The remaining 30% flows from onchain sources, with Spark acting as Sky’s primary allocation arm, routing capital into Sparklend, Maple’s institutional lending, Anchorage, and other yield-bearing opportunities depending on prevailing rates.
The implication, the analysis argues, is that even as TradFi yield increasingly flows through permissioned channels, its redistribution happens onchain, providing a floor for DeFi rates and potentially setting the stage for a next generation of yield derivatives, including fixed-rate products, interest-rate swaps and structured tranches.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto industry executives on Wednesday told the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services that existing investor protections and financial surveillance regulations should apply to tokenized securities.
The hearing was held as legislators consider the Capital Markets Technology Modernization Act of 2026 and are exploring the impact of asset tokenization on capital markets and the “need to balance innovation with investor protection and market integrity,” according to a statement by panel chairman, Representative French Hill.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWA), traditional financial instruments represented by tokens on blockchain networks, reduce transaction costs and settlement times, Summer Mersinger, CEO of crypto advocacy organization Blockchain Association, told the committee.
“By replacing flawed manual record-keeping processes with more transparent timestamps and stamped records, tokenization lowers the cost and re-imagines US financial markets,” she said.
Mersinger and the other witnesses agreed that existing securities laws apply to tokenized instruments, arguing that the technology and the medium used to record securities transactions do not fundamentally alter investor protection laws or jurisdictional oversight.
Supporters of RWA tokenization contend the technology removes intermediaries from the settlement and clearing process, reducing transaction costs and improving capital velocity by introducing near-instant settlement times.
AML provisions and sanctions compliance remain lawmaker priority
Lawmakers questioned the panel about how tokenized asset issuers and platforms could enforce know-your-customer (KYC) checks, anti-money laundering provisions, and sanctions compliance.
Illinois Representative Bill Foster asked: “Once things are tokenized, are they going to be treated on a private, permissioned blockchain, or a variety of public blockchains, which often allow anonymous participation through self-hosted wallets?”
John Zecca, Nasdaq executive vice president and global chief legal, risk, and regulatory officer, told Foster that the exchange can collect KYC information at the protocol level because its system runs on a permissioned blockchain network.
Christian Sabella, managing director and deputy general counsel of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the world’s largest clearinghouse company, said it was also possible to embed identifying information at the token level.
These identifiers would be immutable and would remain regardless of whether the RWA token was trading on a permissioned or a permissionless network, Sabella added.
Salman Banaei, general counsel for Plume Network, a permissionless RWA-focused blockchain, said the network embeds anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance checks at the token level, which allows tokens to be frozen.
However, Banaei told Foster that government regulators do not yet have a technological solution to identify wash trades or identify market participants with 100% confidence.
Magazine: Meet the onchain crypto detectives fighting crime better than the cops
Crypto World
Market structure bill compromise draws wide-ranging reaction from fractured crypto crowd
Coinbase is walking a tightrope in the negotiation over the Clarity Act, telling the staffs of U.S. senators that the company is not happy with where the lawmakers landed in their latest compromise, according to people familiar with the situation, but it hasn’t openly declared its opposition.
The proposed agreement was shown to stakeholders in the crypto industry on Monday and the banking industry on Tuesday. From the crypto industry side, it received mixed reactions, according to people familiar with the meeting on Monday. Some stakeholders were dissatisfied — most notably Coinbase — but others were “pleasantly surprised,” one of the people said. No one was able to take a copy of the text with them, and it has not yet been released for circulation.
Those familiar with the Monday gathering said there were still issues to work out, and suggested the proposal might impede stablecoin-related products and services beyond what they’d hoped for.
The new proposal would direct some regulatory agencies to draft rules establishing how, exactly, issues like rewards might be overseen. Some have had concerns about regulators issuing subjective criteria for how permissible activity would be governed, noting that there may end up being different types of rewards programs. Any rulemaking would need to be neutral, they said.
And the language was also said to potentially restrict firms’ ability to tie rewards to the scale of stablecoin transactions in an account, which could be an obstacle for a program akin to credit card rewards.
Through the months of negotiation, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been a leading voice, and his opposition of an earlier effort at stablecoin yield compromise helped derail a planned Senate hearing. A White House favorite in the crypto sphere, Armstrong leads the company that potentially has the most to lose from narrowing its stablecoin rewards programs.
On an industry call this week, people said Coinbase clashed with others over the bill, suggesting a fracturing of crypto views on how to proceed. Giving up certain stablecoin rewards could be costly for some, but losing the Clarity Act’s full-fledged establishment of crypto within the U.S. financial system is — for others — seen as a bigger risk.
The updated text that is released — expected either late this week or early next week — will likely have been revised from the text shared Monday and Tuesday, though lawmakers are unlikely to want to rewrite too much of the long-debated text.
So far, the bankers haven’t publicly shared their views on the proposal.
The crypto industry’s potential concerns with the approach pitched this week, first reported by CoinDesk, already caused chaos in the market for leading U.S. stablecoin issuer Circle and Coinbase’s stock. Circle stock dropped 20% on Tuesday, though it ticked up slightly on Wednesday. However, Tuesday’s news from its chief rival, Tether, about submitting to an audit may have been another factor in the hit to Circle’s shares, observers noted.
Despite negative responses to the Clarity Act revisions, Patrick Witt, the White House’s crypto adviser, criticized the “uninformed” people making predictions about the Clarity Act’s status.”It’s all going to work out,” he posted Wednesday on social media site X (formerly Twitter). “Bullish.”
One of the people advocating taking a step back:
“Everyone should take a chill pill and stay off Twitter,” the person said.
Coinbase is publishing its order book, spot and futures data on-chain through Chainlink DataLink, widening access to institutional-grade feeds for DeFi derivatives and tokenized assets.
Summary
- Coinbase has integrated Chainlink’s DataLink service to publish its exchange market data on-chain for the first time, covering order books, spot prices, and perpetual futures data from Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Derivatives Exchange.
- The datasets — which underpin billions of dollars in institutional trading activity — are now accessible to DeFi protocols building derivatives, tokenized real-world assets, structured products, and next-generation lending risk engines.
- The integration follows Chainlink’s existing role as Coinbase’s exclusive interoperability provider for Coinbase Wrapped Assets, and builds on the earlier Base-Solana bridge secured by Chainlink CCIP.
Coinbase has integrated Chainlink‘s DataLink service to bring its premium exchange market data on-chain for the first time, the two companies announced Wednesday in a joint press release — marking what both firms described as a significant milestone in decentralized finance market infrastructure. According to a PR Newswire announcement, DeFi protocols and developers can now access Coinbase’s order book data, spot prices, perpetual futures data from Coinbase International Exchange, E-mini futures from Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, and additional datasets spanning crypto, metals, energy, and equity futures — all delivered via Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure.
Liz Martin, Vice President of Coinbase Markets, said the company was “excited to build on our existing Chainlink integrations by adopting DataLink to publish Coinbase’s exchange market data onchain for the first time.” She added that the Chainlink data standard is “battle-tested, institutional-grade infrastructure,” describing it as the clear choice for bringing Coinbase’s market data into on-chain markets, and noting that its benchmarks would enable DeFi and TradFi developers to “build more robust onchain apps across derivatives, tokenized assets, and more.”
Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs, framed the announcement in broader terms. “Coinbase bringing its exchange data onchain through Chainlink sends a clear signal,” Eid said. “By delivering institutional-grade exchange data to blockchains, we are proving that the future of finance requires a foundation of uncompromising security. We aren’t just moving data; we are building the programmable market infrastructure defining the next era of tokenization.”
The practical implications reach well beyond data access. High-quality exchange data has long been a bottleneck for on-chain derivatives markets, synthetic assets, tokenized real-world assets, and lending risk engines. DeFi protocols have typically relied on decentralized price oracles that aggregate data from multiple sources — functional, but lacking the depth and granularity of a direct feed from one of the world’s largest institutional crypto exchanges. Coinbase operates one of the most institutionally integrated crypto exchanges globally, and a previous crypto.news story noted that despite Hyperliquid surpassing Coinbase’s 2025 notional trading volume with $2.6 trillion versus $1.4 trillion, Coinbase’s institutional infrastructure remains a reference benchmark for the market.
Wednesday’s integration is the latest in a deepening partnership between the two firms. Earlier in March, a previous crypto.news story detailed how Chainlink CCIP enabled bridging of Coinbase’s cbBTC — backed 1:1 by Bitcoin in custody, with more than $5 billion in circulation — from Base to Monad, unlocking Bitcoin-backed liquidity for DeFi lending and trading. Chainlink was also selected as Coinbase’s exclusive interoperability provider for all Coinbase Wrapped Assets, and secured the Base-Solana bridge that went live in December 2025.
The DataLink service is not exclusive to Coinbase. Chainlink’s institutional data publishing infrastructure is also used by S&P Global and FTSE Russell, signaling a deliberate strategy to position the oracle network as the standard bridge between traditional financial data and on-chain markets. Coinbase, for its part, continues to push toward what a previous crypto.news story described as its “everything exchange” vision — a unified platform spanning trading, borrowing, staking, and now, institutional-grade data infrastructure for the broader DeFi ecosystem.
Payy raised $6m led by FirstMark to build a zero-knowledge L2 and wallet that make USDC payments private by default, targeting enterprise stablecoin flows that avoid fully transparent chains.
Summary
- Payy, a New York-based stablecoin startup, closed a $6 million seed round led by FirstMark Capital in December 2025, bringing its total funding to $8 million.
- The company is building a privacy-focused payments network using zero-knowledge proofs, arguing that public blockchain transparency is a fundamental blocker to enterprise stablecoin adoption.
- Payy already has 100,000+ users across 120 countries and processes around $130 million in annualized transaction volume, with a mainnet rollout planned for this summer.
Payy, a stablecoin startup building a privacy-focused payments network on zero-knowledge infrastructure, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by FirstMark Capital — an early backer of Airbnb, Shopify, and Pinterest — with participation from Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto, the company announced Wednesday. According to The Block, the round closed in December 2025 and was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with attached token warrants, bringing Payy’s total capital raised to $8 million including a $2 million pre-seed raised under its former identity as Polybase.
“We were preempted by FirstMark,” Payy co-founder and CEO Sid Gandhi told The Block. The company’s core argument is one that a growing chorus of stablecoin builders are raising — that on-chain payments are too transparent to attract serious enterprise volume. “Today, sending a stablecoin payment is like posting your bank statement on a public website,” Gandhi said. “Every amount, every recipient, every balance, visible to anyone. Enterprises will never move meaningful payment flows onchain if every transaction is visible to the world.” A previous crypto.news opinion made a similar case, arguing that if stablecoins aren’t private, nothing is.
Payy was originally founded as Polybase, a web3 database project, before pivoting toward stablecoin payments in 2023. Gandhi said the pivot came from realizing that zero-knowledge technology built for the database could plug what he sees as a structural gap in the stablecoin stack. The company now offers a self-custodial wallet — launched in January 2024 — and a Visa card that went live in August 2025, allowing users to spend USDC anywhere Visa is accepted while keeping on-chain transactions private.
Payy’s longer-term infrastructure play is the Payy Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 rollup using zero-knowledge proofs to shield transaction details including sender, receiver, and amounts. The company announced the network last month. A testnet is expected to launch next month, with a mainnet rollout planned for this summer. A native token is also in the pipeline, though Gandhi declined to set a timeline. A previous crypto.news story on USDCx highlighted how Aleo’s zero-knowledge infrastructure is pursuing a near-identical thesis — private stablecoin transfers with selective regulatory disclosure — suggesting the market for this architecture is becoming genuinely competitive.
Payy is based in New York and has a team of 12, with plans to hire across business development and engineering. The platform currently serves more than 100,000 users across 120 countries, processing roughly $130 million in annualized transaction volume. The company generates revenue through onramping fees, gas fees, and enterprise contracts.
Gandhi said a dozen design partners are already building on the testnet to add privacy to “billions of dollars of stablecoin flows,” and framed the FirstMark relationship as a direct channel into enterprise distribution. “With the FirstMark investment, we have access to some of the best technology-forward companies on the planet, who we plan to onboard to stablecoins in the coming months,” he said. Payy now joins a broader wave of stablecoin infrastructure startups attracting institutional capital, including Gnosis, which entered U.S. markets through a partnership with stablecoin startup Noah after the latter raised $22 million in seed funding.
Truth Social owner, Trump Media and Technology Group, has diversified into cryptocurrency and is planning to launch both exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and prediction markets. Truth Social also one of the most important places to keep up to date with Donald Trump’s personal thoughts about the ongoing actions of his administration, including in Iran.
On February 28, US forces in coalition with Israel, began a war with Iran.
The Trump administration has been inconsistent in describing its motivations for this war, at points claiming it was because of Iran attempting to create a nuclear weapon.
However, undercutting that explanation is the fact that in June of last year, Trump stated unequivocally that the strikes that month were intended to result in the “destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat,” and were “a spectacular military success.”
He also posted following that strike to say, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
There’s currently a war. Not only that, it’s an arguably unconstitutional war that lacks any formal declaration, a power reserved for Congress.
Adding to the strangeness surrounding the conflict are a variety of troubling claims posted by Trump on Truth Social.
All transcriptions of Trump’s messages seen below are reproduced exactly as he wrote them and all emphasis is his.
February 28
The day the conflict started, Trump posted repeatedly on Truth Social.
In one message, he reposted an article from the website Just The News, which makes the extraordinary claim that “Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States.”
To support this claim, Just The News references Trump’s campaign announcement claim that Iran had planned to assassinate him, as well as a Semafor report that Trump FBI appointee Kash Patel had been targeted by an Iranian cyberattack.
It’s not clear if Trump believes the war is in retaliation for this, or if it’s supposed to be about nuclear weapons, or because Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism, or because of some vague failure of the Democrats.
Another post from the same day, which announced the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed that his death was some form of justice, despite the fact that Khamenei wasn’t tried in any court.
That same post made the claim that Iran “has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated.”
Hours later, Trump posted the claim that should Iran respond, the United States “WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
It’s important to note that the US is the only nation on Earth to use nuclear weapons in combat, and Trump is promising to go even further.
March 1
The second day of the war brought just one post from the president, in which he made the claim that “we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important.
“We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”
He signed off with a sarcastic “Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!”
March 2
March 2, the third day of this undeclared war, saw Trump repeatedly take to his personal social media site.
In his first post, he complained about the Democrats, apparently convincing himself that “they are only complaining BECAUSE I DID IT and, if I didn’t do it, they would be screaming — Why didn’t “TRUMP” attack Iran, he should do it, IMMEDIATELY?”
The rest of his post is a complaint about members of the Democratic Party performing a milquetoast protest during his State of the Union, wherein they didn’t stand during the proceedings.
This post was followed by one that echoed Shakespearean concerns about a lady who “doth protest too much.”
Trump declared, “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.
“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!)”
The rest of the post sees Trump complaining about previous arms and munitions that had been provided to Ukraine as part of congressionally approved aid for Ukraine to withstand Russia’s illegal and unethical war of conquest.
March 3
On March 3, Trump declared that Iran’s “air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said “Too Late!””
This was several days after he declared that Iran had been obliterated.
This post was followed by another in which Trump noted that “more than 9,000 Americans have safely returned home from the Middle East” and encouraged other people who might be endangered by the ongoing war to register with the State Department.
After this near acknowledgement that his war had endangered Americans, there were several days where Trump’s posts weren’t about the war he started.
March 6
On March 6, Trump announced to the “obliterated” Iran that “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
This was followed by another acknowledgement that the US needed to evacuate Americans, noting, “We are moving thousands of people out of various Countries throughout the Middle East.”
Confusingly, considering this is a public post, he also claimed that it was “being done quietly.”
March 7
March 7 brought with it more confusing claims from Trump, including that “Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore.”
According to Trump, “This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack.”
This was followed by a threat that “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”
More troublingly, Trump indicated a willingness to target “areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
Later, he noted, “The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.”
However, Trump then informed Prime Minister Keir Starmer that “we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
March 8
On March 8, Trump wanted to comfort Americans worried about the surge in oil prices and so claimed that these short term increases would “drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over.”
This comes more than a week after Iran was supposedly “obliterated” and months after the “very successful” June strikes.
Trump added that “ONLY FOOLS” would believe that these oil prices wouldn’t drop rapidly.
March 9
The very next day, Trump threatened Iran, claiming “they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far” if they did “anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz.”
March 10
The next day, he threatened Iran again, saying that “If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.
“If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction! Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait.”
He concluded, “They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE!”
This was followed by a claim that the US had “hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships.”
It’s not clear what impact this might have had on active mine laying and/or ships.
March 12
March 12 was a busy day for the “leader of the free world.” Nevertheless, he continued to post updates on an undeclared war on a social media platform he continued to own while serving as president.
This included making the claim that the US benefits when oil prices go up, but he clarified that this wasn’t his motivation.
His motivation was, apparently, “stoping [sic] an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World.”
This was followed by a thinly-veiled threat to the Iranian National Soccer Team.
Trump warned that they’re welcome at the World Cup but noted that he doesn’t “believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.”
Shortly after, Trump announced that “All Players, Officials, and Fans will be treated like the ‘STARS’ that they are!”
Following that, Trump gave in to nostalgia and posted an old picture of him in his military school uniform.
It’s important to include the context that when Trump was drafted in Vietnam, he was exempted because of a case of bone spurs.
Additionally, he reportedly described Americans who died in conflict as “losers” and “suckers.”
Following this post from his schoolboy days, Trump returned to the topic of the nation he had apparently obliterated nearly two weeks ago.
He was now claiming that “We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning.
“Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time — Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
March 13
The two week anniversary of the obliteration of Iran, March 13, saw Trump announce that “the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”
In this same post, Trump expressed his belief that “Iran’s Military, and all others involved with this Terrorist Regime, would be wise to lay down their arms, and save what’s left of their country, which isn’t much!”
This was followed by a subsequent post in which Trump claimed, “Iran had plans of taking over the entire Middle East, and completely obliterating Israel. JUST LIKE IRAN ITSELF, THOSE PLANS ARE NOW DEAD!”
He then posted a video that had the text “UNCLASSIFIED” superimposed on top and appeared to depict the US military killing people.
Subsequently, Trump posted his claim that Iran “is totally defeated and wants a deal — But not a deal that I would accept!”
March 14
The next day, Trump continued to whinge about the media, claiming that there was “an intentionally misleading headline” about “the five tanker planes that were supposedly struck down at an Airport in Saudi Arabia, and of no further use.”
He claimed, “In actuality, the Base was hit a few days ago, but the planes were not ‘struck’ or ‘destroyed.’ Four of the five had virtually no damage, and are already back in service. One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly.”
This was followed by a post in which Trump claimed that “Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe.”
This came several days after he informed Prime Minister Starmer that the UK would not need to send war ships because we had already won the war.
This was followed by another post in which he explained that “The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!
“The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”
March 15
The next day, the whinge-fest about the media continued with Trump claiming that “Iran has long been known as a Master of Media Manipulation and Public Relations. They are Militarily ineffective and weak, but are really good at ‘feeding’ the very appreciative Fake News Media false information.”
This was followed by the claim that Iran is using artificial intelligence to fool the media and that this might mean “that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!”
Trump followed this by claiming that he’d sic Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, on these organizations, threatening their broadcast licenses.
This would be an unconstitutional violation of the first amendment, but seemingly so is his war.
March 17
On March 17, Trump returned to the contentious issue of the allies of the US.
Trump claimed that “The United States has been informed by most of our NATO ‘Allies’ that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East.”
This is a strange thing for him to post after claiming that the US didn’t need allies to get involved because the war was won.
Anyways, Trump used this to begin an assault on NATO in which he claimed that the other members “will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need.”
The post ended by once again channeling the Shakespearean lady who doth protest, “speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
March 18
The next day, Trump decided to remind his 12 million followers that “for all of those absolute ‘fools’ out there, Iran is considered, by everyone, to be the NUMBER ONE STATE SPONSOR OF TERROR. We are rapidly putting them out of business!”
This came nearly three weeks after he claimed the nation was obliterated.
Subsequently, Trump returned to his unproductive relationship with his allies, speculating about “what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”
This again comes after he stated that we didn’t need the assistance of any allies.
Trump returned to this topic again to share a New York Post opinion piece that claimed that “US allies need to get a grip — step up and help open the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump then described how US ally and coalition partner, “Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran.
“A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.”
Apparently, even when our allies do agree to help with the military operations, the US is still left in the dark.
Trump added that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
He then threatened, “I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.”
March 20
On March 20, Trump once again returned to his problematic relationship with allies, claiming that “Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!”
He added that these allies “complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices.
“So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”
After this, he claimed that “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran.”
This post also included another claim about the cooperation of US allies, this time that “The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not!
“If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them.”
This was a drastic change of direction from when Trump told Prime Minister Starmer that the US did not need and did not want UK warships to help secure the Strait.
March 21
On March 21, Trump once again reiterated his belief that victory was effectively achieved.
He claimed that the United States was “weeks ahead of schedule” and that Iran’s “leadership is gone, their navy and air force are dead, they have absolutely no defense, and they want to make a deal.”
Despite the fact that Iran’s navy and air force were purportedly dead, Trump had to return to his social media platform a short while later to state that “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
March 22
The next day, Trump added his thoughts about the progress of the war, claiming it was evidence of “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, TO PUT IT MILDLY!!!”
March 23
On March 23, Trump again suggested that the war is need an end, posting that “I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
“BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.”
It’s important to remember that on March 6, Trump claimed that “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Also, despite the claim that there would be no further military strikes, strikes have continued.
The next day, March 24, Trump announced that Iran was “gonna make a deal” and claimed that the country “gave us a present…a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money.”
On March 6, Trump had posted that the only deal possible was “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Iran has denied that it intends to make a deal.
Oil and bitcoin prices
This war has led the price of both bitcoin (BTC) and oil to increase, with oil appreciating much more substantially than BTC.
West Texas Intermediate, one of the benchmark oil markets, was trading for approximately $72 per barrel on March 2, and now trades for approximately $88 a barrel, an increase of approximately 21.5%.
BTC, meanwhile, was trading for slightly less than $66,000 on February 28 and now trades for approximately $71,000, an increase of approximately 9%.
Despite the fact that it’s been more than three weeks since Trump claimed that Iran was “obliterated,” the price of oil has stayed substantially higher, despite Trump’s insistence that oil prices “will drop rapidly” once the nuclear threat is dealt with.
Broadly, the president has been wildly inconsistent in his pronouncements about his war, vacillating between proclamations that the war is done, that the enemy will be struck incredibly hard (despite the war being done), that a deal will never be accepted, that a deal is almost ready, that no allies are necessary, and that allies will be responsible for ensuring the Strait of Hormuz remains open.
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