Crypto World
Crypto PACs Help Decide Key Texas Runoffs as Congress Rewrites Digital Asset Rules
Crypto-backed political groups supported several winning candidates in Texas primary runoffs Tuesday, highlighting the digital asset industry’s growing role in US elections as Congress debates new rules for crypto markets.
Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican US Senate runoff against four-term Senator John Cornyn by a wide margin, according to Texas primary runoff results, and will face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in November.
In Houston’s 18th Congressional District, Democrat Christian Menefee unseated fellow Democrat representative Al Green in a decisive win after Republican-led redistricting forced the two incumbents into the same district, ousting one of the state’s most senior House members.
Democrats and Republicans Alex Mealer and Jon Bonck also secured their party’s nominations in competitive Houston-area House races.
The contests drew heavy spending from crypto-aligned political action committees (PACs) focused on a small number of high-stakes races, and come as Congress debates new rules for digital asset markets, including legislation to define crypto market structure and establish a framework for dollar‑pegged stablecoins.

Stand With Crypto assigned Al Green an “F” rating. Source: Stand With Crypto
Victories by candidates backed by crypto-focused PACs in a politically influential state could give the industry additional allies as those measures advance.
Crypto money reshapes key Texas races
Two races in particular show how that money is being deployed. Protect Progress, an affiliate of the Fairshake super PAC backed by firms including Ripple and Coinbase, reported spending about $5 million to support Menefee and a further $2.8 million on advertising opposing Green in the Houston race.
Another crypto-focused group, Fellowship PAC, funded in part by financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, reported roughly $500,000 in spending to boost Paxton over Cornyn in the Senate runoff.
Fairshake’s Republican affiliate, Defend American Jobs, also backed four winning Republican candidates, Jon Bonck, Tom Sell, Carlos De La Cruz and Alex Mealer.
Related: Texas Lt. Gov. calls for study of crypto, prediction markets
Texas runoffs test crypto’s political power
Bitcoin-focused policy advocate Dennis Porter commented on Menefee’s victory, saying, “A pro crypto Democrat just ousted a 20-year incumbent Democrat who was anti crypto. Nature is healing,” a nod to what many in the industry saw as years of Democratic-led “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” campaigns, in which bank regulators and enforcement agencies have been accused of squeezing crypto firms out of the financial system.
While much of crypto PACs’ recent spending in the state has gone to Republican candidates, Menefee’s win gives the groups a high-profile Democratic ally in Texas.
The crypto advocacy group, Stand With Crypto, assigned Green an F grade for his strong opposition to industry-backed legislation, while Menefee is rated as supportive of digital asset innovation.
Prediction markets had strongly favored the crypto-aligned challengers heading into election day. Contracts on regulated and crypto-native platforms implied odds of over 90% that both Paxton and Menefee would prevail, with nearly $15 million reportedly traded on markets tied specifically to the Paxton vs Cornyn runoff.
Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026
Crypto World
Avalanche hits RWA milestone as AVAX price holds key level
- Avalanche’s network has reached a new record high in distributed RWA value.
- Data shows over $1.16 billion on-chain, boosted by BlackRock.
- AVAX price looks to hold $9.00 support amid this ecosystem growth.
Avalanche price hovered $9.25 on Wednesday as bulls attempted to solidify the uptick from intraday lows of $9.10.
The declines had put AVAX price down about 4% in the past 24 hours amid wider market weakness, with most altcoins shedding gains after Bitcoin briefly slipped below $75,000.
While the pullback in BTC could continue to pressure altcoins, could AVAX bounce to above $10.00 as the project hits a new high in terms of distributed real-world assets?
Avalanche RWA ecosystem sees sharp growth
Latest data indicates that Avalanche’s RWA ecosystem has recorded fresh momentum this month, reaching a new milestone for distributed RWAs on-chain.
Distributed RWAs represent assets that use the network as a distribution layer to enable investors to subscribe, hold, and manage tokenized securities or instruments through wallets or custodians.
Rwa.xyz values Avalanche shared shows the metric has surpassed $1.16 billion, with the network posting roughly 58% growth in distributed RWA value over the past two weeks.
Much of the uptick to increased activity from large institutional issuers and managers, notably BlackRock’s additional allocations to its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund.

Such flows into Avalanche-based products have pushed capital onto the chain, attracted liquidity providers, and boosted ancillary services such as custody, compliance tooling, and secondary-market trading.
As a whole, these services make Avalanche an appealing distribution layer for tokenization projects.
Industry observers say the growth reflects a broader trend by which the global value of tokenized assets has expanded significantly over the last year as institutions race to capture efficiencies from programmable settlement and fractional ownership.
AVAX price outlook
The AVAX token has struggled to recapture the momentum that pushed it to highs of $33 in late 2025.
From a technical perspective, AVAX’s daily chart shows the token under short-term pressure.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has edged lower toward neutral territory, signaling that momentum has weakened following the recent retracement.

Key support levels to monitor include $9.00 and $8.30, which align with recent intraday lows.
A deeper support band lies near $7.40, a level that would be tested if broader risk-off selling intensifies.
On the upside, resistance could emerge around $10.40, where sellers previously capped rallies.
The $12 area offers a more significant barrier tied to moving-average confluence and prior supply.
What’s the near-term outlook?
In the near term, AVAX’s direction is likely to remain correlated with BTC price action and institutional flows into Avalanche’s RWA products.
Renewed buyer interest, particularly if institutional subscriptions continue, could propel a recovery toward resistance.
Conversely, a sustained crypto-wide pullback would increase downside risk and test the supports outlined above.
Crypto World
Wall Street gets new crypto rival after Texas bank completes regulatory pivot
A forty-year-old Texas bank is stepping onto the national stage to challenge Wall Street’s push to get a grip on the digital asset industry.
United Texas Bank (UTB) secured approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to convert from a state-chartered financial institution into a nationally chartered bank on May 15, Scott Beck, the president and CEO of the firm, told CoinDesk on Wednesday.
The conversion move, Beck added, is to position his crypto-friendly bank as the primary bridge between the cryptocurrency industry and traditional financial institutions and to provide digital asset services he said the UTB has years fully delivering, while “Wall Street continues to tiptoe.”
The conversion granted by the OCC came with two conditions that Beck said have now been met. “Those conditions were satisfied as of today, May 27,” he said. Since 2024, the UTB operated under a Consent Order with the Federal Reserve, which related to its Bank Secrecy Act and compliance infrastructure.
“Rather than viewing that as a setback, we treated it as a mandate to build something exceptional, and we did. The result is UTB PRISM SENTINAL, our proprietary BSA/AML compliance platform,” he said.
The milestone makes the UTB one of the first banks in the U.S. to successfully complete an OCC conversion since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act 15 years ago, Beck added. He said the conversion also uniquely positions UTB as a bridge between crypto firms worldwide into the U.S. banking system, access that very few banks today are willing to give.
“The concept for United Texas Bank is a centralized value hub,” said the chair of UTB, a bank he himself said is unknown nationally, but widely sought out by crypto firms.
“If you’re a digital asset player, you can’t get an account at a Bank of America or a Citibank. You can come to United Texas Bank and basically have full access to the U.S. dollar,” he said, adding that his bank has been providing services to reputable crypto firms for about five years, handling over $120 billion in transactions for them yearly.
Standing with the giants
Beck explained that the strategic OCC conversion places the Dallas-based institution on par with money-center giants like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, granting it identical federal licensure, full trust powers and direct access to the Federal Reserve’s wire and ACH systems, while retaining the FDIC insurance it had.
However, unlike traditional Wall Street firms that are beginning to explore the crypto ecosystem, UTB already “underpins a massive chunk of global crypto liquidity, clearing $10 billion a month in U.S dollar volume for foreign banks, over-the-counter (OTC) desks and major exchanges.
UTB is not alone in the race for a competitive place within the growing crypto sector in the United States. Last week, Minnesota signed into law new rules allowing local banks to fight Wall Street for cryptocurrency profit. The state banks and credit unions joined forces with lawmakers to push legislation granting them authorization to provide crypto custody services to their clients.
For UTB, the conversion marks an ambitious operational pivot, Beck added. While crypto startups have spent years chasing limited, trust-only charters that bar them from the Federal Reserve’s payment rails, UTB’s national charter bypasses those restrictions entirely.
A U.S. first
“We are the first to move across to the national banking stage with full access to the Federal Reserve for wires and ACH,” Beck added.
By shifting away from the Texas Department of Banking and positioning itself directly under the OCC, UTB aligned its corporate structure with the executive branch of the federal government, shielding its clients from the fractured regulatory landscape that historically choked crypto firms, Beck said.
To capitalize further on its federal upgrade, the bank is launching UTB Atomic, an artificial intelligence-driven, real-time payment network engineered to bring back the round-the-clock liquidity infrastructure that collapsed when Silvergate and Signature Bank did.
In a 24/7 crypto market, traditional bank closures create massive settlement bottlenecks for institutional traders operating at 3:00 a.m.. UTB Atomic solves this by enabling instant, off-balance-sheet clearing between institutional clients while a parallel AI network, UTB Prism Sentinel, continuously conducts real-time blockchain surveillance to neutralize compliance risks, Beck explained.
“The biggest issue that faces the larger financial institutions is the ability to actually track what’s happening as the payments are coming through,” Beck said, adding that the system is purpose-built to navigate upcoming regulatory thresholds like the federal stablecoin frameworks under the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act.
With a comprehensive digital asset custody and full-service trust department slated to launch this summer, UTB aims to bridge traditional finance and crypto and positioning itself as the native financial plumbing for the next era of global commerce, Beck said.
Crypto World
Polymarket is Blocking VPN Access With KYC: Should You Worry?
Polymarket is encouraging more traders to verify their identities and tightening enforcement against VPN use, marking a clear shift from its long-standing permissionless trading model.
The world’s largest prediction market faces growing sanctions, legal, and regulatory pressure on its operations. House Oversight Committee investigators have requested KYC and geographic enforcement records by June 5.
What Changes for Everyday Users
According to a report from The Information, the company is pushing traders toward voluntary identity checks while clamping down on suspicious accounts.
Basic wallet-connect trading still works for most international users, who can deposit USD Coin (USDC) on Polygon without uploading personal documents.
That permissionless access is no longer guaranteed across the board. Polymarket now strictly polices VPN use, and accounts that bypass IP-based geoblocks risk suspension or permanent bans.
Traders running seven-figure positions, or rapid five-figure deposit-trade-withdraw cycles, have been documented triggering verification under internal anti-money laundering thresholds.
Users who complete a voluntary KYC or KYB form gain perks. These include direct co-location on Polymarket’s primary servers, which lowers latency for active traders.
Regulatory Pressure is Rising
The international platform remains separate from Polymarket US. The US arm requires full KYC since Polymarket acquired a CFTC-licensed exchange in 2025.
The shift followed a $1.4 million CFTC settlement in 2022 over unregistered binary options.
More than 33 countries now face full restrictions or technical blocks. These range from OFAC-sanctioned states to jurisdictions with strict gambling rules.
Stronger compliance reduces the threat of shutdowns, blocked withdrawals, and follow-on regulatory action. Privacy-focused traders, however, lose some of what made the platform distinctive.
Therefore, the message to international users is simple. Trade through a wallet in permitted countries, avoid VPN workarounds, and expect identity requests if activity stands out.
The trend points toward tighter controls, even where the front door stays open.
The post Polymarket is Blocking VPN Access With KYC: Should You Worry? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
HTX misrepresents Huobi Global S.A. after UK sanctions
Recently, the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) sanctioned an entity called “Huobi Global S.A.” for its alleged role in “providing financial services” to firms that are “carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia.”
Specifically, it alleged that this entity was interacting with what is commonly referred to as the A7 Payment Network, which includes the A7A5 stablecoin.
Additionally, Huobi Global S.A. was allegedly interacting with the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
Read more: UK sanctions HTX for alleged Russian sanctions violations
HTX has publicly responded to these allegations by claiming, “the listed entity Huobi Global S. A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange.”
It further claimed that “the designation does not and should not have any impact on the online HTX exchange. HTX’s global operations remain unaffected, and all user funds are safe.”
However, this update minimizes the extensive role that Huobi Global S.A. has served for HTX.
What is Huobi Global S.A.?
Huobi Global S.A. is a Panamanian incorporated entity that was incorporated on May 19th, 2023.
This entity lists Huobi Global Limited as one of its directors.
That is not the only connection to the HTX exchange, as Huobi Global S.A. is also the trademark holder for the HTX trademark in the United States.
However, the most striking connection comes from a legal filing related to Huobi Global S.A.
Read more: Justin Sun’s Poloniex added to UK regulator warning list
Specifically, on February 2nd of this year, Huobi Global S.A. filed a claim in the District Court for the District of Columbia. This claim was for Tether (USDT) tokens that had been burned and was related to the 2023 hack of HTX and the HECO bridge.
In this claim, lawyers for Huobi Global S.A. described it as the entity that “owns and operates HTX…and is the developer of the Huobi Eco Chain.”
So, mere months before HTX would publicly insist that “the listed entity Huobi Global S. A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange,” it was insisting in legal filings that it “owns and operates HTX.”
Protos has reached out to HTX for comment, but it did not immediately respond.
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Crypto World
OpenZeppelin Pushes Back After Ex-CTO Declares All of DeFi Unsafe

OpenZeppelin, a smart contract security firm whose libraries underpin most DeFi protocols, pushed back Tuesday against a viral post by its co-founder and former CTO declaring all of DeFi fundamentally unsafe, clarifying that the claims do not represent the company's position. Manuel Aráoz, who… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Important for Ripple (XRP) Traders: Rare Bottom Signal Emerges
Ripple (XRP) continues trading within a narrow range between around $1.30 and $1.38 despite several failed breakout attempts.
Santiment has identified a rare XRP signal as traders remain under increasing pressure.
High-Potential Rebound Zone
According to on-chain analytics platform Santiment, the average XRP trader active over the past 30 days is currently down 47%, as many investors are reportedly selling at the bottom during the recent market decline.
Santiment found that XRP’s 30-day Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV), a metric used to measure average trader returns, has now dropped to its lowest level since December 2020. MVRV readings historically tend to return toward 0%, which makes the current level an indication that the crypto asset may be in an extreme undervalued zone.
As per the analysis, the sharp decline is indicative of a growing fear and frustration among traders following XRP’s retracement, which has erased more than half of its market value since last summer. Santiment said XRP’s strong rally during late 2024 and early 2025 led many traders to enter positions near local highs before momentum weakened and repeated selloffs pushed short-term holders into heavy losses.
Despite the decline, the findings reveal that some long-term investors remain optimistic due to expectations surrounding regulatory progress, speculation about a potential XRP ETF, and Ripple’s broader adoption narrative. Santiment added that deeply negative MVRV zones like the current one have historically appeared when retail traders capitulate, often creating conditions where even minor positive catalysts can trigger strong recoveries.
Additionally, fear around the crypto asset has climbed to unusually high levels on social media. The ratio of bullish to bearish comments has dropped to just 1.1 positive comments for every 1 negative comment as traders grow more cautious about XRP’s outlook.
Santiment observed that similar periods of fear and skepticism have historically acted as contrarian signals for XRP, as many weaker holders tend to exit the market during sharp downturns. The platform added that previous moves into this “FUD zone” were often followed by price stabilization or short-term rebounds.
Rising Speculative Momentum
At the same time, fresh data from CryptoQuant pointed to growing speculative activity around XRP perpetual futures on Binance, even though the token itself has continued hovering near $1.34. The analytics firm said XRP’s volume imbalance reading climbed to roughly 0.54, which means that perpetual contract trading volumes are now significantly higher than during earlier periods of quieter market activity.
According to CryptoQuant, this suggests more traders are returning to short-term leveraged positions. The platform also noted that XRP’s Z-Score rose to nearly 0.95, meaning current trading activity is approaching one full standard deviation above its usual average.
CryptoQuant added that the indicator had spent an extended period in negative territory before recently moving back into positive levels, which points to a gradual improvement in trader risk appetite and renewed speculative participation in the market.
The post Important for Ripple (XRP) Traders: Rare Bottom Signal Emerges appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Pi at around $0.15 today, what happens to PI if it ever becomes a GENIUS Act stablecoin?
Pi Network is trading near $0.15 today, and the real question is whether a GENIUS Act-style shift toward regulated, reserve-backed digital dollars would cap its upside or finally give it a credible path to parity with the U.S. dollar.
Summary
- Pi Network is trading around $0.15, with most models seeing either flat or modestly higher prices into 2026
- The GENIUS Act framework for fully backed, bank-style stablecoins could one day turn PI from a speculative asset into a regulated dollar proxy
- That trade-off would likely swap 10x moonshot upside for a hard $1 target and a shot at mainstream payments and savings use cases
Pi Network’s (PI) various IOU markets are currently pricing PI just under the $0.15 mark, with recent data from Bybit showing the token at roughly $0.17 and analytics platforms such as CoinCodex and CoinCheckup clustering the live price in the $0.14–$0.15 band as of late May 2026. Price prediction engines are broadly cautious: CoinCodex, for example, projects Pi could slip toward $0.11 by late June 2026, implying downside of roughly 25% from current levels, while its 2026 full-year model sees an average price near $0.11 within a $0.10–$0.15 trading channel. Longer-term forecasts are more generous, with some outlets modeling potential paths toward $0.50–$0.80 by 2030 and even north of $1 by 2050, but those curves assume PI remains a high-beta, speculative asset tied to broader crypto liquidity cycles rather than a tightly managed stablecoin.
The GENIUS (National Innovation Guidance and Establishment for American Stablecoins) Act points to a radically different future. The law is designed to create a category of fully reserved, U.S.-regulated stablecoins that hold one-to-one backing in cash or ultra-safe assets like U.S. Treasuries and live inside a bank-like supervisory perimeter. In a viral explainer circulating in the Pi community, one commentary describes how GENIUS-compliant issuers “must hold one-to-one reserves, one real dollar or super safe equivalents in protected accounts,” and notes that Pi teams are “actively exploring the path to register Pi as a GENIUS-certified stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar,” with the explicit goal that “one Pi equal…1 U.S.” dollar. In that vision, the Pi users have been mining for years would “no longer have a fluctuating unknown value” but would convert into a regulated digital dollar with real-world purchasing power.
What a GENIUS-style pivot would mean for PI’s price path
If Pi ever did complete that pivot—from an IOU-like, thinly traded altcoin at $0.15 into a GENIUS Act registered, reserve-backed stablecoin—the price prediction game changes completely. Under a strict one-to-one reserve model, the long-term “target” price is effectively hard-coded at $1, with variations only around market confidence, liquidity and short-term technical noise. Overnight, the question “Can PI hit $10?” becomes nonsensical; the relevant question becomes “Can PI credibly defend $1 through cycles?” That is the trade-off: accept a ceiling on upside in exchange for dramatically lower volatility, better regulatory clarity and access to mainstream payments rails and bank integrations.
From today’s roughly $0.15 spot price, even that path is non-trivial. To credibly peg PI at $1 under GENIUS rules, its backers would have to amass and ring-fence reserves that match whatever portion of the existing supply they convert into the new instrument, plus manage redemptions in a way that avoids bank-run dynamics. For existing holders who mined or bought PI on the expectation of uncapped upside, a forced migration into a $1-anchored instrument could feel like an expropriation of optionality, especially if conversion terms do not fully reward early risk-taking. On the other hand, a regulated stablecoin backed by one-to-one reserves could be the only realistic path to turning Pi from a speculative IOU priced at cents into something that merchants, payroll platforms and even conservative fintechs will actually touch.
Price prediction in a bifurcated future
In the base case where Pi never becomes a GENIUS-compliant stablecoin, the numbers on the table are modest. CoinCodex’s mid-range scenario has PI averaging around $0.11 in 2026 and potentially climbing toward $0.49 by 2030, with bullish tails that extend above $0.80 by 2040 and $1.70 by 2050, assuming the project stays alive and the broader crypto cycle cooperates. Other forecasters sketch similar arcs, generally keeping PI below $0.20 in the near term but allowing for multi-bagger potential over a decade if adoption, listings and network effects materialize. In that world, Pi is another high-risk token riding crypto’s liquidity waves, not a serious monetary instrument.
Under a GENIUS-style pivot, the price path compresses. The bull case is not a 10x from $0.15 to $1.50; it is a roughly 6–7x move to $1 followed by a plateau where returns come from using Pi in real-world commerce, payments and yield-bearing wrappers rather than capital gains on the token itself. The bear case shifts too: instead of grinding down toward zero in a liquidity winter, a fully reserved, well-governed Pi stablecoin would either hold the peg or fail outright if governance, reserves or regulation blow up. For now, Pi trades and is modeled as if the GENIUS Act is background noise. If the project ever actually crosses that regulatory Rubicon, every price prediction you see today will need to be rewritten from scratch.
Crypto World
XLM price jumps 8% as Stellar and DTCC partner to bring tokenized securities on-chain
- Stellar and DTCC have partnered to bring tokenized securities on-chain.
- DTCC processed approximately $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year.
- XLM price rose to above $0.16.
Stellar’s native token XLM rose more than 8% after the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to connect its tokenised securities platform to the Stellar blockchain.
The development comes as Bitcoin faces renewed downside pressure, and is being viewed as another sign of growing institutional interest in blockchain infrastructure built for real-world asset tokenisation.
Stellar and DTCC announce tokenization partnership
The DTCC, one of the world’s largest post-trade market infrastructure providers, said it will link its tokenized securities platform to the Stellar network in the first half of 2027.
The partnership targets DTC-custodied assets, including Russell 1000 equities and US Treasuries, bringing large swathes of traditional securities onto-chain.
DTCC processed approximately $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year.
Nadine Chakar, Managing Director and Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets, praised Stellar’s institutional credentials, saying Stellar’s “proven track record with institutional assets onchain is an important factor in our evaluation of blockchain networks. Its emphasis on compliance, transaction throughput, and low-cost operations meets our rigorous standards and will help ensure we’re ready for growth as usage of blockchain networks for real-world asset transactions increases.”
The statement frames the collaboration as a measured step toward scalable, compliant tokenization of mainstream financial instruments.
The arrangement positions Stellar as a candidate for high-volume, regulated token issuance and settlement.
DTCC’s selection criteria, which include compliance features, throughput capacity, and cost-efficiency, mirror the operational demands of institutional markets.
According to market observers, the development could encourage other market infrastructures to explore similar integrations.
“Stellar’s proven compliance-minded architecture, open infrastructure, and risk management capabilities are aligned with market demands and expectations. Our network was built for this moment – we have always believed that blockchain’s utility for finance is to be the rail that institutional-grade markets can depend on,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director, Stellar Development Foundation
XLM price jumps 8%
Stellar price reacted positively to the announcement, with XLM rising roughly 8% to above $0.16.
Gains in the past week now stand at over 13%.

The intraday rally in Stellar (XLM) appeared to be driven in part by speculative flows as Bitcoin rebounded from intraday lows.
The move also points to renewed investor interest in Stellar’s potential role within the institutional tokenisation market.
From a technical standpoint, XLM has broken above a short-term resistance zone near $0.15, an area that previously acted as a swing high.
Holding above this level would reinforce the view that fresh buying pressure is entering the market.
The token has already retested intraday support following the breakout.
A decisive close above the recent resistance zone could open the way toward higher horizontal supply levels.
On the downside, failure to maintain the breakout may see XLM retreat toward key support areas defined by major moving averages, where buyers have previously emerged.
Crypto World
Strategy CEO bought $19K of STRC for his kids after making $37M
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) CEO Phong Le just bought $5,467 of his company’s STRC preferred shares for two of his children. The same man earned over $37 million running the company over the past three years, including $13.7 million in total executive compensation during fiscal 2025 alone.
Not that it makes the figure any better, but all three minor children technically held STRC before May 22. Together, they hold 186 STRC shares, worth $18,600 combined.
Alongside founder Michael Saylor, Le has spent the past year pitching STRC to retail investors as a supposed competitor to high-yield bank accounts and money markets. Le’s 11.5% dividend-paying, variable-rate stock has a market cap of $10.4 billion — about four-fifths of which is owned by non-accredited, retail investors.
Le disclosed his May 22 familial purchases on a SEC Form 4 dated May 26. He bought 50 STRC shares at $99.41 for Minor Child 1, plus 5 shares at $99.37 for Minor Child 3.
BitcoinTreasuries.NET celebrated the filing, “Bitcoiner dad securing the future for his kids.”
Quite the gift from the Strategy CEO who made $37 million
Strategy’s 2025 financials, filed with the SEC on April 28, list Le’s 2025 total compensation at $13,784,204. Specifically, his package breakdown was $1.1 million in salary, $1.235 million in bonus, $8.8 million in stock awards, and $2.38 million in option awards.
In other words, Le’s gift to his children works out to less than one one-hundredth of his 2025 stock awards alone.
His 2024 total was slightly higher, $15.74 million. That was mostly due to the higher closing price of Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, in 2024 versus 2025. In 2023, Le received $8 million.
Read more: Strategy’s BTC binge has cost it $1 billion in expenses
Le has also bought STRC for himself, although not in quantities that would come anywhere close to his level of compensation, let alone net worth. On March 19, he bought 2,509 STRC shares at $99.62, a $250,000 open-market trade.
Trivial relative to his personal fortune, he told podcaster Natalie Brunell that he wanted to “experience” STRC, likening its monthly dividends to a paycheck.
CEO whose common stock lost 58% in 12 months
STRC is a perpetual preferred share that pays a monthly dividend and is quasi-pegged at $100, even though it has traded as low as $90.52 per share on the Nasdaq. In its private debut, Strategy priced its public offering at $90 per share on July 24, 2025.
To encourage bids up to $100 per share, Strategy has hiked the monthly dividend rate seven times since launching STRC, from 9% to 11.5% today.
Le personally owns 8,009 STRC, 6,000 Strife, 4,500 Stride, and 22,923 MSTR common shares.

STRC closed at $99.47 on Tuesday, just below its $100 par. The company’s MSTR common stock has declined 11% over the past six months and 58% over the past 12 months.
The company’s massive stockpile of bitcoin (BTC) were acquired for an average $75,700 cost basis — slightly above the current market — excluding $1 billion of costs while running that acquisition strategy for the past six years.
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Crypto World
Cash App starts rolling out USDC payments to nearly 60 million users
Block’s Cash App has begun a phased rollout of USDC support, turning the app into a stablecoin payment rail for tens of millions of U.S. retail users.
Summary
- Cash App is adding USDC deposits, withdrawals and payments for its roughly 60 million users
- About 25% of users have access now, with full coverage targeted by the end of the week
- The feature supports Solana, Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum, with on-chain mis-sends remaining irreversible
Block’s Cash App is gradually enabling stablecoin payments for its nearly 60 million users, starting with a restricted launch that currently reaches around a quarter of the customer base and is expected to extend to 100% availability within the week, according to the company’s communications. The new feature allows users to deposit and withdraw USD Coin (USDC), moving value freely between external self-custodial wallets and their Cash App balances, and to use the stablecoin explicitly as a payment and settlement tool rather than a savings or yield product.
At launch, Cash App’s USDC functionality supports four major blockchain networks: Solana, Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum, giving users access to both high-throughput, low-fee rails and the more established Ethereum mainnet environment. The company is emphasizing that on-chain payments are irreversible by design, warning that sending USDC to an incorrect address or over an unsupported network will result in permanent loss of funds, a sharp contrast with the reversibility many users associate with card payments or bank transfers.
From bitcoin-first to stablecoin reality
The rollout marks a pragmatic shift for Block, whose co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has repeatedly framed bitcoin as the company’s long-term priority and the native money of the internet. In prior public remarks, Dorsey has said the firm’s strategic focus would lean heavily toward bitcoin, from mining hardware to self-custody solutions and Lightning-driven payments. The decision to integrate USDC at scale through Cash App reflects the reality that, in day-to-day commerce, demand for dollar-pegged stablecoins has outpaced consumer interest in spending volatile assets.
By treating USDC as a transactional settlement instrument—rather than dangling yield or speculative upside—Cash App is positioning its stablecoin feature squarely inside a regulatory narrative that views stablecoins as payment tools, not investment contracts. Users can top up USDC from an external wallet on a supported chain, move it into or out of their Cash App dollar balance, and route payments through stablecoin rails without needing to think about FX or crypto price swings.
Consumer payments meet on-chain finality
For Cash App’s user base, the integration opens a direct bridge between mainstream fintech and public blockchains. Someone paid in USDC on Solana, Polygon, Ethereum or Arbitrum can now pull those funds into Cash App and spend in the familiar fiat environment, while merchants or individuals who want to settle in stablecoins can push value out to external addresses on the same networks.
The downside is that users are now exposed to classic on-chain risks. Mis-typing an address, choosing the wrong network, or sending to a contract that does not accept USDC will not trigger a support ticket reversal; the funds are gone. Cash App’s messaging stresses this irreversibility, underscoring that while the company is moving closer to crypto-native infrastructure, it cannot rewrite the fundamental properties of the networks it supports. For Block, the phased rollout allows it to test how a largely retail audience handles those constraints at scale, balancing its long-standing bitcoin maximalist instincts with the market’s clear preference for dollar-stable, programmable money.
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