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Bitcoin ETFs barely flinch as BTC slides 40%, Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas says

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Bitcoin ETFs barely flinch as BTC slides 40%, Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas says

Latest developments: ETF investors are proving more resilient than many expected during bitcoin’s latest drawdown. In an interview on CoinDesk’s Markets Outlook, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted several key data points demonstrating this stability:

  • Bitcoin has fallen more than 40% from recent highs, a move that historically rattles retail-heavy crypto markets.
  • Over the same period, only 6.6% of Bitcoin ETF assets have exited.
  • “For now, the ETF boomers have really come through,” he said.

Why ETF holders are holding: Balchunas argues ETF investors are structurally different from crypto-native traders.

  • Many ETF buyers treat bitcoin as a 1%–2% “hot sauce” allocation alongside stocks and bonds, rather than a core holding.
  • Their broader portfolios have benefited from strong equity markets, cushioning the psychological blow of crypto losses.
  • ETF investors “tend to hold really strong,” Balchunas said, having lived through multiple market cycles in traditional assets.

The contrast with crypto natives: The same price drop can feel radically different depending on exposure.

  • Investors heavily concentrated in bitcoin face what Balchunas described as “existential crisis mode.”
  • Leveraged traders and long-time holders may be driving more of the selling pressure than ETF investors.
  • “Volatility is the cost of the returns,” Balchunas said, noting bitcoin has endured seven or eight similar drawdowns historically.

Lessons from gold ETFs: Balchunas sees parallels between bitcoin and gold as ETF-wrapped assets.

  • Gold ETFs suffered a roughly 40% drop over six months about a decade ago, during which about one-third of assets left.
  • Despite that, gold ETFs later rebuilt assets and now hold roughly $160 billion.
  • Bitcoin ETFs briefly rivaled gold ETFs in size before the recent selloff, highlighting how flows can reverse over time.

What comes next: Volatility is likely to persist, but ETFs may anchor bitcoin’s place in traditional finance.

  • Balchunas said bitcoin’s 17-year history shows repeated recoveries to new highs after major downturns.
  • ETF structures mean Bitcoin now sits alongside stocks, bonds and commodities in mainstream portfolios.
  • “A selloff doesn’t mean the end,” he said. “It just means it’s a selloff.”

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Solana foundation debuts developer platform with Mastercard and Western Union

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Solana foundation debuts developer platform with Mastercard and Western Union

Solana launches an API-based developer platform for institutions, landing Mastercard, Western Union and Worldpay as early users for stablecoin and payment rails.

Summary

  • The Solana Foundation launched the Solana Developer Platform (SDP) on March 24, a unified API-based platform targeting institutions and enterprises building tokenized assets, stablecoins, and payment flows on Solana.
  • Mastercard, Western Union, and Worldpay have signed on as first adopters, with use cases spanning stablecoin settlement, cross-border payments, and merchant settlement.
  • The platform launches as Solana processed a record $650 billion in stablecoin volume in February 2026, surpassing both Ethereum and Tron to become the leading chain for stablecoin activity.

The Solana Foundation on March 24 launched the Solana Developer Platform, a one-stop API-based infrastructure layer designed for financial institutions and enterprises seeking to build tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and real-world payment flows directly on the Solana (SOL) blockchain — with Mastercard, Western Union, and Worldpay joining as its first institutional adopters.

The announcement lands at a moment of considerable momentum for Solana as a payments infrastructure. In February 2026, the network processed a record $650 billion in stablecoin volume, more than doubling its previous peak and overtaking both Ethereum and Tron to claim the largest share of the $1.8 trillion global stablecoin market. The stablecoin sector itself now sits at approximately $328 billion in total market capitalization, according to rwa.xyz.

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Solana – A Platform Built for Institutional Scale

The SDP is structured around three core modules: issuance, payments, and trading. The issuance and payments modules are live immediately, allowing institutions to issue tokenized deposits, GENIUS-compliant stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets, while also managing fiat and stablecoin flows — including on-ramps, off-ramps, and on-chain transactions. A trading module supporting atomic swaps, vaults, and on-chain foreign exchange is expected later in 2026.

To underpin institutional requirements, Solana integrated more than 20 infrastructure partners across node infrastructure, wallets, compliance, and payment ramps. Modern Treasury, the payments software company, was selected as the platform’s payments infrastructure partner. “Solana processes tens of millions of transactions daily with near-instant settlement,” said Matt Marcus, co-founder and CEO of Modern Treasury. “By integrating Modern Treasury’s payments software, we’re helping make that infrastructure usable for enterprises that need strong controls, reliability, and compliance from day one.”

The three launch partners each represent a distinct institutional use case. Mastercard has joined to explore stablecoin settlement, Worldpay is using the tools for merchant payments and settlement, and Western Union — which has been deepening its Solana footprint since partnering with Crossmint in March to support its USDPT stablecoin on the network — is using the platform for cross-border payment flows.

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Malcolm Clarke, VP of Digital Assets at Western Union, framed the integration as an extension of the company’s core infrastructure rather than a replacement. “Solana Developer Platform lets us extend what Western Union already does best — moving money reliably across borders — by adding an API-driven, on-chain layer that can orchestrate fiat and stablecoin flows end-to-end,” Clarke said. “It’s not a replacement for our network; it’s a modern extension that helps us innovate faster, expand new use cases, and bring more cross-border activity on-chain in a scalable, compliant way.”

Catherine Gu, Head of Product for Digital Assets at the Solana Foundation, described the platform as an “easy gateway” for any institution to start building immediately, noting that the fully API-based design removes the technical and operational barriers that have historically slowed enterprise blockchain adoption.

Solana’s Institutional Moment

The SDP launch is the latest in a string of enterprise moves on Solana, which has increasingly positioned itself as the settlement layer of choice for payment-focused blockchain applications. Wyoming launched its state-issued FRNT stablecoin on Solana in January 2026, while Backpack rolled out on-chain IPO access using Solana rails in March. SOL was trading near $84 to $95 at the time of the announcement, with $80 acting as key near-term support.

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Nasdaq and Talos Move to Unlock $35 Billion in Trapped Collateral

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Nasdaq and Talos are wiring legacy infrastructure directly into crypto trading stacks to release $35 billion in stagnant capital. The partnership, announced Monday, integrates Nasdaq’s Calypso risk platform and Trade Surveillance technology with Talos’s institutional liquidity network.

This is not a pilot program. It is an industrial-scale attempt to solve the collateral bottleneck slowing institutional adoption employed by major banks. By bridging the gap between digital assets and traditional finance (TradFi), the move targets the inefficiency of capital sitting idle in redundant buffers.

Key Takeaways:
  • Deal Mechanics: Nasdaq Calypso and Trade Surveillance now run natively within the Talos institutional trading stack.
  • The Problem: Fragmented systems lock up roughly $35 billion in collateral across “corrective and non-interest-bearing measures.”
  • Market Implication: Real-time mobility for tokenized RWAs and traditional assets removes a critical barrier to institutional scale.

The Problem: What “Trapped Collateral” Actually Means

Institutional capital is notoriously inefficient. Nasdaq’s internal research estimates $35 billion in collateral sits idle at any given moment, tied up in “corrective and non-interest-bearing measures.” In plain English, this is dead money.

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It is capital trapped in transit between fragmented settlement layers or locked in safety buffers because risk systems cannot talk to each other. For firms trading across digital and traditional markets, the friction is double. Moving Treasuries to cover a crypto margin call historically involves T+1 settlement lag and manual reconciliation.

That lag forces traders to pre-fund positions, killing capital efficiency. The bottleneck is not liquidity. It is mobility.

The integration pipes Nasdaq’s post-trade infrastructure directly into the pre-trade execution environment. Talos clients—spanning hedge funds and brokers—gain access to Nasdaq Calypso, a platform already used by standard-bearer financial institutions for treasury and collateral management.

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This creates a unified workflow. A trader can now manage tokenized real-world assets (RWA) alongside spot crypto and traditional equities through a single lens. “The evolution toward tokenized collateral is a natural progression for institutional capital markets,” said Anton Katz, Talos CEO.

Crucially, Nasdaq is also deploying its Trade Surveillance engine here. This allows firms to detect wash trading, layering, and spoofing across venues in real-time. It brings Wall Street audit trails to crypto rails.

Why Now: The Institutional Tokenization Push

This is not happening in a vacuum.

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The race to tokenize real world assets has moved from experimental pilots to production infrastructure. BlackRock, DTCC, and Euroclear are all positioning to control the rails of tokenized collateral. Nasdaq’s decision to integrate Calypso rather than build a new crypto-native tool tells you everything about the strategy. They are not joining the new frontier. They are bringing the existing fortress to it.

Institutions are done with sandboxes. Firms either adapt their infrastructure or lose the asset flow. The fracture happening at legacy institutions is not a warning. It is already the outcome.

The surveillance component is the stick behind the carrot. By embedding Nasdaq’s abuse detection tools, Talos splits the market in two. Venues with institutional-grade surveillance on one side. Gray-market pools where wash trading still runs unchecked on the other. The gap between institutional crypto and TradFi is narrowing fast.

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Atomic settlement of tokenized collateral kills the counterparty risk that terrified credit committees after FTX. Nasdaq EVP Roland Chai framed the problem directly. The industry cannot manage exposure across markets with a single risk and asset lens. That lens is now in place.

Unlocking $35 billion in collateral efficiency is the opening bid. Not the prize.

The infrastructure phase of this bull market is quiet and violent at the same time. Retail is chasing meme coins. Nasdaq and Talos are replumbing the settlement layer underneath them.

The real prize is becoming the default operating system for the next generation of capital.

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Aave, Ethena leaders outline push to build onchain fixed income markets in DeFi

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Aave, Ethena leaders outline push to build onchain fixed income markets in DeFi

Crypto finance is only now beginning to provide an environment that matches traditional finance: ways to earn steadier, more predictable returns — similar to bonds or savings products, according to Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov and Ethena CEO Guy Young.

“Most fixed income is like the distribution of risk in different formats … basically just slicing and dicing and distributing risk,” Young said during a panel at Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in New York. “This piece of DeFi was probably the least featured two years ago.”

Until recently, crypto users mostly traded tokens or borrowed against them, often chasing high, unpredictable yields. New tools make it possible to lock in returns, even in a market known for big swings.

“What you’re doing with Pendle is providing a fixed-to-floating rate swap,” Young said, referring to a system that lets users choose between more stable or more variable returns — similar to choosing between fixed or adjustable interest rates.

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That’s not easy in crypto. “It’s very difficult to know three months out what the market is actually going to look like,” he said.

Kulechov said Aave has helped support this shift by providing deep pools of capital that other projects can tap into. “Aave is sort of acting as a liquidity sink,” he said, helping “bootstrap a lot of the new coming products in DeFi.”

For now, much of the money being made still depends on trading rather than traditional lending. “A lot of DeFi yield … is largely still based on … leverage,” Kulechov said.

Over time, that could change as more real-world assets move onchain, a process known as tokenization.

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“A lot of the yields and a lot of the economics will come from the traditional finance,” he said.

Read more: Ethena-backed suiUSDe stablecoin goes live on Sui with $10 million yield vault launch

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Why cautious TradFi firms love staked ether

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Why cautious TradFi firms love staked ether

Crypto has gone mainstream as a financial asset class and TradFi institutions now feel obligated to dip their toes into the space, if only to show their existing clients that they aren’t afraid to handle innovative technologies.

The problem, for some of them, is that staking — one of crypto’s most basic primitives — is still considered too dangerous. It exposes institutions to risks they are structurally unwilling to accept, like slashing, downtime, operational failures and returns that resist forecasting. As a result, many firms have limited themselves to holding spot ETH or spot SOL or avoided the assets entirely.

That dynamic is now changing. A new generation of insurance-backed staking products, structured around the Composite Ether Staking Rate (CESR) benchmark and underwritten by regulated insurers, is reframing staked ETH as something closer to an institutional yield product than a speculative crypto experiment.

For cautious TradFi firms, this shift matters far more than marginal improvements in headline yield. It opens up a fundamental crypto vertical to a new set of investors.

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The institutional appeal of staked ETH

Holding spot ETH offers pure exposure to price appreciation and drawdowns. But staked ETH introduces a recurring yield component that improves total return over time and partially offsets volatility. For institutions accustomed to thinking in risk-adjusted terms, this reframes ETH exposure closer to dividend-paying equities rather than growth assets.

Liquid staking tokens further strengthen the case, because they allow institutions to earn staking rewards while retaining balance-sheet flexibility. Positions can be rebalanced, used as collateral, or exited — without interrupting yield generation.

Just as importantly, staked ETH derivatives are increasingly accepted as transparent, over-collateralized instruments. For TradFi firms designing secured lending products, yield-enhanced notes, or delta-neutral strategies, staked ETH becomes usable in structure, not just in theory.

Yet despite these advantages, one obstacle has remained stubborn: risk.

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How CESR and insurance change the equation

The CESR is a daily, standardized benchmark rate developed by CoinDesk Indices and CoinFund to measure the average annualized yield of ETH validator staking. It serves as a trusted reference rate for institutional staking and derivatives.

Thanks to this benchmark, a new method to earn a safe, long-term yield on ETH is emerging. Insurance companies like Chainproof (in partnership with IMA Financial Group) offer policies that essentially top up investors’ yield if their validator’s returns fall below the CESR benchmark and guarantee reimbursements if slashing occurs.

Benchmarking staking returns to the CESR — and wrapping that exposure with insurance — fundamentally alters how institutions perceive staking. Instead of open-ended technical risk, institutions get a defined, underwritten exposure. Downtime and operational failures are no longer existential threats to expected returns.

With insurance in place, CESR-linked staking begins to resemble instruments that TradFi already understands. The parallels are familiar: insured municipal bonds, enhanced money-market products, or short-duration credit with external credit support. These are not risk-free instruments, but they are priceable. Suddenly, staked ETH can be slotted into existing risk frameworks.

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And once staking risk is benchmarked and insured, institutions can responsibly structure CESR-linked products. Capital-protected notes with staking yield, yield-plus strategies combining staking returns with basis trades, or delta-neutral ETH strategies with insured yield floors all become viable. Without insurance, compliance teams block these ideas.

TradFi firms cannot rely on informal assurances when dealing with regulators, LPs, or internal model validation teams. The CESR insurance model allows them to say: “Our exposure to ETH is benchmarked, insured, and underwritten by a regulated third party.” That single sentence materially changes how staking exposure is evaluated across compliance and fiduciary review processes.

Introducing ETH to the broader economy

With appropriate risk mitigation, CESR-linked staking begins to resemble infrastructure yield rather than speculative crypto return. That shift, more than yield itself, is why cautious TradFi firms are finally paying attention.

Ethereum’s long-term value proposition has always rested on its role as a global settlement infrastructure. Staking is the mechanism by which that infrastructure is secured and value accrues to participants. Insurance-backed staking does not change Ethereum’s economics; it translates them into a language institutions can understand.

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Cautious TradFi firms are doing what they have always done: adopting new assets once risks are legible, bounded and transferable. They are not suddenly becoming crypto-native. CESR-linked, insured staking meets their needs, and that’s why they’re now quietly embracing staking, even though they once dismissed it.

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Analysts Say This Must Happen for Ethereum to Take Out Resistance at $2.2K

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Analysts Say This Must Happen for Ethereum to Take Out Resistance at $2.2K

Ether’s (ETH) 9% rally on Monday stalled at $2,200 due to stiff overhead resistance and weak ETF demand. Still, technical and onchain setups suggested that upward momentum may increase as long as ETH stays above the $2,000 mark.

Key takeaways:

  • Ether bulls must flip the $2,200 level into new support.

  • Spot ETF outflows continue, reflecting increasing institutional sell pressure.

Ether price must hold $2,200 as support

Data from TradingView shows that ETH price is stuck between two key trend lines: the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $2,200 acting as resistance and the 50-day SMA at $2,000 as support.

Related: Ethereum may see 25% rally as richest ETH whales return to ‘profitable state’

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ETH bulls must now reclaim the 50-day EMA to ensure a sustained recovery toward $3,000.

The last time ETH/USD broke out of such a range was in May 2025, triggering a 50% rally in less than seven days.

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

A break above $2,200 would confirm a bullish breakout from a symmetrical triangle pattern, with a measured target of $3,080, or a 42% rise from the current level.

Before this, however, the bulls would have to contend with stiff resistance between $2,780 and $2,880, where the 200-day EMA, the 50-week EMA, and the 100-week EMA converge.

Glassnode’s cost basis distribution heatmap shows a heavy accumulation at $2,750-$2,850, where investors acquired more than 7.5 million ETH.

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Notably, there is a relatively low concentration of supply between $2,200 and the $2,700 cost-basis cluster, meaning a break above the current range may allow the price to move more freely toward the bigger overhead resistance.

ETH: Cost basis distribution heatmap. Source: Glassnode

On the downside, a dense accumulation cluster sits around $1,850, where investors previously acquired 1.3 million ETH. 

If the $1,850-$2,000 support gives in, it could trigger the next leg lower toward the bearish target of the triangle at $1,400.

“$ETH failed to reclaim the $2,100 level and is now moving down,” analyst Ted Pillows said in a Monday post on X, adding:

“Now, the only crucial support level for Ethereum is $2,000 and if ETH loses it, the dump will accelerate to new lows.”

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: Ted Pillows

As Cointelegraph reported, holding above $2,000 would keep the medium-term trend intact, while a break below shifts the positioning toward aggressive short exposure, with the lower targets in focus.

Ethereum ETF inflows must return

One factor that could trigger an ETH price breakout is a resurgence in institutional demand, which has diminished with outflows from spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over the last four days.

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Data from Glassnode shows the 30-day average of the US spot ETH ETF flows drifting back into the negative zone after a short period of inflows.

If flows can re-accelerate into consistent positive territory, it would strengthen the case for renewed trend continuation for ETH.

Spot Ether ETF net flows, 30DMA. Source: Glassnode

Similarly, investors reduced exposure to global Ethereum investment products, which recorded over $27.5 million in net outflows during the week ending March 20.

Meanwhile, the number of Ethereum treasury companies buying ETH on a daily basis has dropped sharply since August 2025, reinforcing the decline in institutional demand.

Ethereum treasury companies buyers. Source: Capriole Investments 

Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ethereum treasury holder, is the only company that appears to be buying, adding $139 million worth of ETH last week.

Bitmine’s total ETH holdings are now 4.66 million ETH, bringing it closer to its goal of acquiring 5% of the token’s circulating supply.

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