TLDR:

• Solana recorded $716M in real-world asset net inflows in May, the highest figure across all blockchains.
• Mastercard launched always-on USDC stablecoin settlement on Solana, linking traditional finance to the network.
• Backpack Securities introduced a U.S.-regulated brokerage merging traditional stocks with Solana-native tokenization.
• Solana captured roughly 60% of total onchain collectibles volume while Solana Mobile crossed 1,000 dApp Store apps.

The Solana ecosystem recorded a wave of institutional and developer activity in May, even as SOL traded near $65. Mastercard launched always-on USDC settlement on the network.

Backpack introduced a regulated brokerage for tokenized stocks. Real-world asset inflows hit $716 million — the highest across all chains.

Meanwhile, builders shipped payments tools, DeFi protocols, cross-chain bridges, and onchain games at a steady pace.

Institutions Drive Real-World Asset Growth on Solana

The Solana ecosystem attracted $716 million in real-world asset net capital inflows during May. That figure surpassed every competing blockchain, marking a clear institutional preference for the network. The milestone reflects growing confidence in Solana’s speed, cost efficiency, and settlement reliability.

Mastercard’s move added further weight to that trend. The payments giant introduced always-on stablecoin settlement directly on Solana, using USDC. That integration connects traditional financial infrastructure to a public blockchain in a live, operational capacity.

Backpack followed by announcing Backpack Securities, a U.S.-regulated brokerage built on Solana. The platform merges standard brokerage functions with native onchain tokenization.

Raydium separately crossed $2 billion in cumulative trading volume for tokenized equities, showing that demand for onchain real-world assets is already active and growing.

Builders Launch Payments, DeFi, and Cross-Chain Tools

Beyond institutions, the Solana ecosystem saw a broad wave of new product launches throughout May. MoonPay released the MoonAgents Desktop App, which connects ChatGPT or Claude so AI agents can execute onchain payments. Axelar went live on Solana to support cross-chain messaging and programmable asset transfers.

The Solana Foundation also announced native Subscriptions and Allowances, enabling delegated spending and recurring billing on the network.

PAJ Cash debuted v2 of its payment platform, which allows account-based Web3 off-ramps. Lava Card launched a zero-annual-fee Visa debit card tied to Solana, further connecting onchain assets to everyday spending.

On the DeFi side, Kamino’s xStocks market surpassed $30 million in total market size. Zodial shipped a portfolio-margin lending protocol.

Sunrise DeFi, Meteora, and Bedrock Foundation teamed up to launch Dynamic Assets. The Solana Foundation also opened dedicated support for teams building onchain perpetuals infrastructure.

Collectibles, Gaming, and Community Milestones Add Momentum

The Solana ecosystem also led onchain collectibles markets during May, capturing roughly 60% of total volume across all chains.

Moonshot released Moonshot Packs, bringing a physical trading card experience to the blockchain. Jailed, an onchain prison simulator game, also launched on Solana during the period.

Solana Mobile crossed 1,000 live apps on its dApp Store, a community milestone that reflects steady developer growth.

Helium Mobile, the consumer carrier running on Solana’s network, was acquired by Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile. That acquisition extends the network’s reach into consumer telecom.

KAST won Best Digital Assets Fintech at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards. MonkeyFoundry opened Cohort 2 applications, closing June 12.

BitRobot Network announced applications for its robotics laboratory program. Together, these developments show that builder and community activity within the Solana ecosystem remained active regardless of short-term price movement.

Bitcoin (BTC) traders said that BTC holding above the $60,000 psychological support over the weekend was important as it recovered 6.5% from a local low near $59,100 to an intraday high of around $62,950 on Sunday.

Key takeaways:

• BTC is eyeing a rally toward $92,630 if it continues to hold above a key moving-average support.
• Nasdaq technicals hint at a potential decline of over 10% in the short term.

BTC may rise above $90,000 if Nasdaq underperforms

Bitcoin’s rebound stood out as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) plunged more than 4% on Friday, its steepest one-day drop since April 2025. This has raised hopes that risk capital may return to BTC markets.

BTC/USD vs. IXIC daily performance chart. Source: TradingView

Technical commentary shared by veteran analyst Filbfilb offered some hope for the Bitcoin bulls.

In a Sunday post, the analyst highlighted Bitcoin holding strong above its 200-week simple moving average (200-week SMA, the blue line) at around $61,880. This level has helped form the bottom in 2020, 2018, and 2015.

BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView

In other words, traders may view the dip below $60,000 as a shakeout if BTC holds the 200-week SMA, with the 50-week SMA (red) near $92,630 becoming the next major upside target.

At the same time, the Nasdaq appears to be correcting toward its 20-week SMA, the green line near 22,905 points, after its weekly relative strength index (RSI) fell to 62.46 from around 74.75.

Every major Nasdaq weekly RSI drop from above 70 (overbought) to below 70 since 2021 has led the index back toward its 20-week moving average.

IXIC weekly chart. Source: TradingView

The Nasdaq could fall toward 22,905 if the fractal repeats, implying a further decline of about 10.75% from current levels in June or by July.

That said, Bitcoin could be setting up for a sharp mean-reversion rebound if it holds its long-term floor while the Nasdaq continues to cool off.

Bitcoin-Nasdaq ratio supports BTC rebound scenario

Bitcoin’s ratio against the Nasdaq has again reached a record oversold zone, according to its daily RSI readings.

Related: Bitcoin most oversold since 2020 crash: Can BTC rebound to $70K next?

On Saturday, the RSI dropped to 14.70, the lowest in history. The previous record was 14.88, set in February, ahead of a 30%-plus recovery in BTC prices.

BTC/IXIC vs. BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

In simple terms, Bitcoin had become too cheap relative to the Nasdaq, and buyers stepped in. The same setup is appearing again, reiterating a potential rebound in BTC prices in the coming weeks.

The House Ways and Means Committee circulated seven draft bills ahead of this week’s hearing on crypto tax policy, signaling what the industry can expect.

You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.

The narrative

The House Ways and Means Committee is the group of lawmakers tasked with writing laws governing taxes. While we’ve seen draft bills addressing taxes already, it’s this committee that’s really going to handle a hefty part of the work of drafting crypto tax legislation and shepherding it through the legislative process.

Why it matters

The fact that the committee is at the point of discussing draft legislation in a hearing shows progress on this front, and it’s likely the provisions will eventually become law in the coming years, whether as part of a tax-specific legislative package or as part of some other, broader bill.

Breaking it down

Staking and mining, de minimis and stablecoin transactions are all covered in the draft bills circulated late Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee, among various other issues.

It’s unclear how much progress will be made in terms of actually turning these bills into law in the 2026 calendar year. The House — and Senate, for that matter — has a number of other priorities that are more advanced and require floor time, as CoinDesk has covered before. Still, the existence of the draft bills and a hearing are important steps.

Alison Mangiero, the head of industry affairs and U.S. policy at the Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry trade group, said in a statement that the group of bills was an “important first step.”

“The Ways & Means Committee’s decision to release seven bills and follow with a full committee legislative hearing on June 9 is significant on procedural grounds alone,” she said. “This format, where members work through specific legislation with expert witnesses before any markup, is one the Committee has not used in years. That kind of deliberate, structured engagement represents the unique focus from the Committee on this important work.”

Mangiero called the bills the third leg in the metaphorical three-legged stool of crypto legislation, with the other legs including the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and the market structure-focused Clarity Act (the latter of which, as we all know, is still elbow-deep in the legislative process).

“Several provisions in this package reflect priorities we have long advanced: sensible tax treatment for GENIUS-compliant stablecoins that allows them to function as the payments instruments they are; a de minimis exception for routine network transaction fees, a relief we have long advocated for, and believe should be further broadened as the process continues; parity provisions extending securities lending, mark-to-market, and charitable deduction treatment to widely traded digital assets; and clear rules for the taxation of mining and staking rewards,” she said.

In semi-related news, the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Investor Advisory Committee also met late last month to discuss, among other issues, whether stablecoins qualify to be treated as cash equivalents.

The committee believes there needs to be a “high threshold” to establish something as a cash equivalent, according to a summary of the meeting shared with CoinDesk. The members of the committee did not come to a consensus about what kind of information would be useful for investors.

Possible disclosure information includes how reserves are structured, the type of stablecoin, who the issuer is, where funds are held, disaggregated information about cash equivalents and currency risk and even whether disclosed information was made on an interim basis.

The committee will meet again in November.

Tuesday

• 18:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. ET): The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing to discuss crypto tax policy.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See ya’ll next week!

TLDR:

• BNB at $10,000 would push its market cap to $1 trillion, matching Bitcoin’s entire valuation today.
• The 33rd quarterly BNB burn removed 1.44 million tokens worth approximately $1.2 billion in value.
• BNB Chain recorded 31 million daily transactions in 2025, with TVL rising over 40% year-over-year.
• Over 30 companies are reportedly building BNB treasury strategies, mirroring the BTC and ETH trend.

BNB’s price trajectory has drawn increasing attention from analysts tracking the broader crypto market. Currently trading around $570, the asset sits roughly 60% below its all-time high of $1,375, reached in October 2025.

Despite strong on-chain fundamentals, one analyst argues that price targets between $10,000 and $20,000 remain mathematically implausible in the near term. The reasoning centers on market cap realities that most retail discussions tend to overlook.

The Market Cap Math Behind BNB’s Price Ceiling

Crypto analyst Crypto Patel recently laid out the numbers in a post on X. At $10,000 per token, BNB’s market cap would approach $1 trillion, roughly matching Bitcoin’s entire market cap today.

At $20,000, a single asset would carry a $2 trillion valuation — exceeding the total crypto market cap of approximately $2.2 trillion combined.

Even accounting for BNB’s ongoing burn program, the supply math does not bridge that gap easily. The 33rd quarterly burn removed 1.44 million BNB tokens, valued at around $1.2 billion. Once the supply reaches its 100 million target, the market cap math remains the dominant constraint.

For BNB to reach $10,000, the total crypto market would need to expand well beyond $10 trillion. That kind of growth requires sustained institutional adoption over many years, not a single market cycle.

Patel’s honest assessment is direct: “Anyone throwing out $20,000 as a near-term target is selling you something, not analyzing.” A $2,000 to $3,000 range represents the more credible bull case for the current cycle.

What BNB’s On-Chain Data Actually Shows

The fundamentals behind BNB Chain in 2025 were genuinely strong. Daily transactions hit a record 31 million, and total value locked on the chain grew over 40% year-over-year. Stablecoins on the network doubled to $14 billion, reflecting real user and protocol activity.

Real-world asset tokenization on BNB Chain crossed $1.8 billion, with major institutions including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck issuing assets on the network. That institutional presence adds credibility to the chain’s long-term positioning.

Adding to that momentum, over 30 companies are reportedly preparing BNB treasury strategies, mirroring the ETH and BTC treasury trends seen elsewhere in the market. That kind of corporate adoption typically supports price floors rather than driving parabolic moves.

The single biggest risk to BNB remains its structural dependency on Binance. Any major regulatory action against the exchange carries a direct and immediate effect on BNB’s price.

That concentration risk is what separates BNB from more decentralized Layer-1 assets in institutional risk assessments.

Strategy watchers were not disappointed on Sunday as executive chairman Michael Saylor took to social media to signal pending news on changes in the company’s Bitcoin holdings, hours ahead of the final tally of shareholder votes on a proxy measure that would see the company pay dividends twice a month on its preferred STRC shares.

“A good time to add more dots,” was the message Saylor posted on X.com along with a bubble chart tracking Strategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) purchases over the past nearly six years. That chart, from Iceland-registered StrategyTracker.com, has been consistently posted by Saylor in the days ahead of news of a purchase by the biggest publicly traded Bitcoin holder.

By mid-afternoon on Sunday, Michael Saylor’s X post had 2.3 million views. Source: Michael Saylor on X.com

CEO Phong Le shared Saylor’s tweet with his own message, “Our corporate @Strategy is to increase net Bitcoin and Bitcoin per share over time. Rumors otherwise are just rumors.”

Should any purchases be announced in the coming days, they will likely reflect that the Bitcoin treasury company bought at or below the average cost of previous BTC purchases. That average cost of Strategy’s current holdings of 843,706 Bitcoin is $75,701 apiece. However, the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap has lost 16.6%% of its value in the past seven days, trading at about $62,153 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Last week, Strategy announced that it has repurchased some corporate debt, temporarily pausing its Bitcoin accumulation. That sent a chill to the market as traders feared that the company could be forced to liquidate some of its BTC holdings to fund the buybacks. 

Related: Strategy’s leveraged Bitcoin model has faced its first stress test: Grayscale

Down to wire on STRC dividend change proxy vote

Strategy shareholders have been asked to approve a change in dividend payments on STRC, to semi-monthly instead of monthly. The company claims that if approved and adopted, it will lead to reduced reinvestment lag, enhanced liquidity, market efficiency and increased price stability.

“We think that it should decrease the volatility, should cut the volatility by some decent factor. It should increase the Sharpe ratio. It provides more entry and exit points. There’s 24,000 companies that pay a quarterly dividend. 176 pay monthly. We’ll be paying twice a month. And so that’s, it’s an interesting thing. It all will start in June. In July,” Saylor said at last week’s Synergy26 conference for registered investment advisors.

Chart showing proposed change to dividend cadence.
Source: Strategy SEC filing

The amendment for STRC to pay semi-monthly dividends needs 50% of all 85 million shares outstanding as of April 17, 2026, to pass, according to the company.

The decision will likely be reached at Monday’s Strategy shareholder meeting. Cointelegraph requested information on the number of shareholders who had voted as of June 7, in an email to proxy solicitor Alliance Advisors. An immediate reply was not received.

Retail investors have shown limited interest in casting proxy votes. A November research note from The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance revealed data that showed retail investors have consistently voted only about 29% of their owned shares during the past five proxy voting seasons. Institutional holders have voted about 77%.

Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

TLDR:

• JPMorgan shifted from a positive crypto stance to caution amid regulatory and market concerns.
• The bank expects institutional investors to remain the primary source of future crypto inflows.
• Analysts estimate less than a 50% chance of the Clarity Act passing before key elections.
• JPMorgan still sees long-term Bitcoin upside despite current weak sentiment and price pressure.

JPMorgan analysts have turned cautious on cryptocurrency markets for 2026, reversing their earlier overweight and positive stance as regulatory uncertainty and market-specific concerns weigh on sentiment.

The analysts, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, said several developments must occur for crypto markets to regain momentum during the second half of the year.

Despite the downgrade, they noted that current weak sentiment could eventually become a bullish contrarian signal.

According to the report, a stronger market recovery would depend on improved confidence around Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, and progress on U.S. crypto legislation. The analysts also cited concerns about token oversupply and declining investor enthusiasm.

Strategy Concerns Remain a Key Focus

JPMorgan said renewed confidence in Strategy could help support broader cryptocurrency markets. Analysts believe the company needs to rebuild its dollar reserves to reduce concerns about potential future bitcoin sales.

The report also pointed to questions surrounding Strategy’s ability to meet approximately $1.7 billion in annual dividend obligations. Analysts said greater clarity on the company’s plans could ease investor concerns.

JPMorgan highlighted Strategy’s large exposure to Bitcoin and noted that uncertainty surrounding its financial position has become an important market consideration. The bank said resolving those concerns could improve sentiment across the digital asset sector.

Regulatory Outlook Clouds Market Expectations

The analysts also lowered expectations for regulatory progress in the United States. JPMorgan now estimates that the probability of the Clarity Act passing this year is below 50%.

According to the report, the legislative window has narrowed ahead of upcoming midterm elections. That reduced timeline has lowered confidence that lawmakers will approve the bill in the near term.

While the bank remains cautious, it did not abandon its longer-term constructive view on digital assets. JPMorgan said current market weakness and negative sentiment may eventually serve as a bullish contrarian signal if key concerns surrounding regulation and institutional confidence are addressed.

The report reflects a shift from the bank’s earlier optimism. However, analysts said improvements in regulatory clarity and confidence around major market participants could still support a stronger second half for crypto markets.