Crypto World
DeFi risk management giant Gauntlet sees $380 million exit as OKX crypto campaign ends
Gauntlet, one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi) leading providers for risk management tools, has seen its total value locked (TVL), a measure of the assets deposited across its vaults, fall sharply over the past seven days, dropping 22.84% to $1.325 billion.
That has erased roughly $380 million in dollar-denominated value from a week-ago peak of approximately $1.72 billion, according to DeFiLlama data. The decline accelerated Thursday with a single-day slide of 7.57%.
The primary driver, according to Gauntlet, was the conclusion of OKX’s pre-deposit campaign on the DeFi-focused blockchain, Katana. Pre-deposit campaigns — where users are incentivized to park capital ahead of a protocol launch — can produce sharp TVL spikes that unwind quickly once the campaign ends or if a token airdrop occurs. The chart bears this out: Gauntlet’s TVL surged sharply around March 2 before reversing just as steeply.
The asset outflows are predominantly stablecoin-based, Gauntlet noted.
The scale of the move is notable given what Gauntlet actually does. Think of it as a risk management consultancy for DeFi — the firm helps protocols understand, for example, what percentage of a borrower’s collateral would be at risk of liquidation if ETH fell 30% overnight. It doesn’t hold funds itself; instead, it sets the parameters that govern how lending markets and vaults behave.
Its TVL is a measure of the capital held within systems that Gauntlet is responsible for safeguarding. When that number falls sharply, it can reflect either market stress or, as in this case, the mechanical end of an incentive program.
Gauntlet, which received a $1 billion valuation in 2022, currently manages three vaults — essentially pooled deposit accounts where users lock up capital in exchange for a yield. The vaults hold USDC, BTC, and WETH, respectively. The USDC vault is the most liquid, offering an APY of 4.86%, while the others offer between 2% and 2.3%. The outflows could also reflect DeFi traders rotating capital to higher-yielding alternatives — SOL-based protocols like Jito, for example, currently offer 5.69%.
Gauntlet has navigated large capital swings before. In October 2025, its USDT vaults absorbed a $775 million single-transaction deposit — a 40x TVL increase — and recovered to pre-deposit levels within ten days through active reallocation and new collateral market additions. The firm framed this week’s outflows in similar terms, noting that incentive campaign endings, token generation events, and shifts in market conditions regularly produce short-period swings in either direction.
“Institutional risk managers manage through these events,” the firm said in a statement to CoinDesk. “Working to maintain rates, preserve capital supplied to vaults, and adjusting to market conditions.”
Oliver Knight contributed reporting to this story.
Read more: Tokenized Apollo Credit Fund Makes DeFi Debut With Levered-Yield Strategy by Securitize, Gauntlet
The SEC just handed tokenized stocks their biggest legitimacy moment ever, and it happened inside the world’s second-largest stock exchange.
Nasdaq’s SEC-approved pilot allows eligible participants to trade tokenized Russell 1000 stocks and major index ETFs on the same order book at the same price, with the same rights as traditional shares.
But tokenized stocks are still stocks: they simply can’t offer more than 10–15% returns. The crypto market is different because you can find early-stage projects like DeepSnitch AI and invest in them before the broader market notices they exist.
The SEC’s tokenized stock approval confirms that institutional capital is moving on-chain at scale, and when that happens, DeepSnitch AI will be at the forefront with its live AI tools. This is why many believe we should expect a DSNT Binance new listing announcement soon.
SEC approves Nasdaq’s tokenized stock trading pilot
The SEC has approved Nasdaq’s proposal to run a tokenized stock trading pilot, allowing eligible participants to trade tokenized versions of Russell 1000 stocks and major index ETFs.
The regulatory approval is the breakthrough that the tokenized equities sector has been waiting for. Until now, tokenized stock products have operated largely outside US markets, and this pilot puts tokenization directly inside the world’s second-largest stock exchange.
The approval dramatically accelerates tokenization’s legitimacy and adoption timeline. Combined with NYSE’s OKX partnership and DTCC’s Canton Network integration, the US financial infrastructure is now actively building blockchain-based settlement rails.
The tokenized equities market, currently at $1 billion on-chain, now has a regulated, exchange-backed pathway to scale orders of magnitude larger.
Top 3 Binance new listing announcements
DeepSnitch AI
The SEC just approved tokenized Russell 1000 stocks for on-chain trading. That’s a product designed for institutional allocators who want equity exposure without leaving the blockchain, and it will generate moderate annual returns. DeepSnitch AI was built for the traders who came to crypto looking for something very different from that.
In crypto, hesitation costs money. Markets rally and reverse in minutes, and if you’re reacting instead of anticipating, the move is gone by the time you see it. As Nasdaq’s tokenized stocks bring traditional finance participants on-chain, they will eventually start looking for the real asymmetric returns.
DeepSnitch AI is the intelligence platform that bridges that discovery: scanning whale movements, auditing contracts, decoding sentiment shifts, and surfacing opportunities before they reach mainstream attention. That’s the gap the SEC’s approval makes more valuable, not less: more participants, more capital, more noise, and more need for a tool that cuts through all of it.
Now in Stage 7 at $0.04487, with 200% gained from the original entry price and over $2.20 million raised, the Binance new listing announcement conversation looks like the natural next step for a project that already meets the criteria. Binance lists products with real utility and proven user demand. DSNT has both.
The presale closes March 31st. After that, a 7-day claim frame opens for tokens and bonuses, then Uniswap goes live. The tier-1 CEX listings follow from there, and none of those buyers get into DeepSnitch AI at $0.04487.
Fabric Protocol
Fabric Protocol builds financial infrastructure for autonomous robots: on-chain identities, wallets, and independent transaction settlement. The gap is real and largely ignored: today’s robots can’t open bank accounts or own assets.
The token model holds up. ROBO powers every network interaction, while demand ties directly to usage. The veROBO governance mechanism and 12-month cliff with multi-year vesting signal long-term alignment, not short-term extraction.
The development sequencing is pragmatic. Base first for rapid prototyping, purpose-built Layer 1 later for machine-native high-frequency operations.
Katana
Katana combines concentrated liquidity pools, auto-compounding yield optimization, ZK-privacy infrastructure, and a purpose-built Layer 2 on Polygon’s AggLayer into one integrated DeFi ecosystem. The bet is that the integration itself becomes the differentiator in a market where single-feature competition no longer wins.
The concentrated liquidity pools claim up to 4000x greater capital efficiency than traditional AMMs. Cross-protocol yield optimization automatically shifts capital to the highest-performing opportunities. Both target the manual complexity, keeping institutional capital off DeFi entirely.
The institutional angle sharpens the strategy. ZK-privacy tools, enterprise API integrations, and customisable regulatory reporting remove the infrastructure barriers that blocked traditional finance from engaging, not a lack of interest.
The bottom line
The SEC just blessed tokenized stocks, while DeepSnitch AI has launched the AI-native crypto intelligence: first, live, and ahead of the crowd.
Think Bloomberg Terminal crossed with ChatGPT, purpose-built for the only market that never sleeps.
That’s why $2.20M landed in the presale before a single exchange listing and why the Binance new listing announcement conversation is already happening. March 31st is the hard stop.
Visit the official website for more information, and join X and Telegram for community updates.
FAQs
What are the most anticipated upcoming Binance listings as tokenized stocks gain SEC approval?
Among upcoming Binance listings, DeepSnitch AI generates the strongest anticipation: a confirmed Uniswap debut on March 31st, a working AI platform with $2.20M raised, and a track record that meets Binance’s criteria for real utility and user traction.
What does the latest Binance listing news reveal about which projects qualify for tier-1 exchange exposure?
The latest Binance new listing announcement news consistently favors projects with live products and proven user demand. DeepSnitch AI checks both boxes.
How does DeepSnitch AI position itself for upcoming Binance listings compared to Fabric Protocol and Katana?
DeepSnitch AI was better positioned for upcoming Binance listings than Fabric Protocol or Katana. Both are still building toward product-market fit, while DSNT already delivers live intelligence tools and a confirmed March 31st Uniswap launch as its starting point.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Nearly $600 million worth of $20,000 bitcoin put options has emerged as the third most popular strike ahead of Deribit’s quarterly expiry, showing how traders are positioning for extreme downside scenarios due to the Middle East conflict.
A put option gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to sell bitcoin at a predetermined price. With bitcoin trading below $70,000, the $20,000 strike is considered deep out of the money, meaning it would only gain value in the event of a sharp market collapse, or a 70% drawdown from current prices.
Roughly $596 million in notional value, the total dollar value of underlying contracts, is concentrated at the $20,000 strike, making it one of the three most dominant positions. The others sit at $75,000, with $687 million, and $125,000, with $740 million, highlighting a wide spread of expectations across both downside and upside scenarios.
Looking at it from face value, large positioning in a $20,000 put option could suggest fears of a meltdown. However, the structure of the market is more nuanced.
Much of this activity is likely driven by traders selling these far out of the money puts to collect premium, reflecting the low probability of bitcoin falling to $20,000 rather than a direct hedge against a crash. In other words, it is often a strategy tied to income generation or volatility positioning, rather than outright bearish conviction.
The total notional value of bitcoin options expiring on Deribit is $13.5 billion. While, even though the market is in extreme fear, the options market still leans slightly bullish, with a put call ratio of 0.63, indicating more call options than puts, typically used to express bullish views. Total open interest stands at 195,719 BTC, with 120,236 BTC in calls and 75,482 BTC in puts.
Meanwhile, the max pain level, the price at which the largest number of options expire worthless, is $75,000, which could potentially act as a magnet into expiry. As options market makers often hedge around this level, pulling price toward where the greatest number of contracts expire worthless.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $69,000 on Thursday, pulling the price back into its six-week range just days after tapping range highs above $76,000.
The pullback coincides with an increase in selling from Bitcoin futures markets and stalling demand from US-based investors, but the chance for a rebound rally remains. A recurring chart setup indicates that BTC can return to its bullish pathway if the necessary conditions are met.
Bitcoin futures set the trend as spot demand fades
The latest pullback aligns with a visible shift in derivatives’ dominance over spot activity. The Coinbase premium gap turned negative after a period of steady demand, pointing to weak follow-through from US-based investors.
Meanwhile, crypto analyst IT Tech noted a clear imbalance between the spot and perpetual futures. The cumulative volume delta (CVD), which tracks the net buying versus selling across markets, fell by $40.64 million for the spot CVD, while the perpetual CVD dropped by $506.75 million, highlighting stronger selling pressure from leveraged traders.
However, the funding rates have flipped positive to 0.05%, meaning long positions are now paying shorts, indicating a long bias across the derivatives markets.
The order book data shows bid-side support holding near the $70,000 region, with both spot and perpetual markets leaning toward buyers.
Related: OP_NET launches Bitcoin DeFi push without bridges or wrapped BTC
Fractal setup mirrors early-March bounce
On the lower timeframes, Bitcoin is forming a similar fractal setup to the March 6 through March 8 correction when the price declined and swept internal liquidity levels before reversing higher on the charts.
The current move follows the same sequence, with successive lower lows developing into a potential exhaustion phase for the price.
In the prior breakout, the reversal aligned with a bullish divergence on the relative strength index (RSI) indicator, where RSI held equal lows as the price printed a lower low. The pattern signaled a fading momentum from sellers. A comparable divergence is now developing, reinforcing the bullish fractal structure.
The liquidation data also supports this setup. Significant long-side liquidations have been observed on both occasions, reducing the open interest and flushing out overleveraged positions.
A swift reclaim of $70,000 aligns with the previous fractal recovery path, opening a move toward $76,000. The $72,000 level acts as the key pivot, where a reclaim may trigger a short squeeze if short positions get trapped.
However, the setup remains time-sensitive. A breakdown below $68,300 shifts focus toward the $65,000 and $62,000 levels, where higher time frame liquidity sits for BTC.
Trading Stables founder Ryan Scott flagged $73,000 as a key base level, noting that failure to stabilize above this level signals a weak buyer response, raising the chance for a drop to range lows near $62,000.
Related: Bitcoin prediction markets see 70% chance BTC price crashes to $55K in 2026
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.
Crypto World
Trillions in options set to expire Friday as quadruple witching tests crypto resilience
On Friday, global markets will face a trillions-of-dollars quarterly derivatives event known as quadruple witching.
The event occurs on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, when four major types of derivatives expire simultaneously. These include stock index futures, stock index options, single-stock options, and single-stock futures.
Because traders must close, roll or settle these positions simultaneously, trading activity often surges, and price swings can intensify in the traditional markets.
Exact figures for the March 2026 expiry have not yet been published, though recent events illustrate the scale. In March 2025, roughly $4.7 trillion worth of equity and index derivatives expired during the quarterly event. According to TradeStation, that session saw the highest S&P 500 trading volume of the entire year, while other witching days also recorded above-average activity.
Large expiries like this often force institutions to rebalance portfolios, unwind hedges and adjust risk exposure within a short window. Much of the activity tends to concentrate in the final hour of trading, when liquidity spikes and volatility can increase rapidly.
This quarter’s expiration arrives during an already volatile trading environment. Conflict in the Middle East recently pushed oil prices to $120 per barrel, while gold slipped below $4,600 and bitcoin fell below $69,000. Meanwhile, the VIX volatility index jumped above 35 last week, the highest level in a year, signalling heightened stress in financial markets.
Although quadruple witching originates in traditional finance, it can spill into crypto markets. Bitcoin increasingly trades alongside broader risk assets, meaning sharp moves in equities often ripple into digital markets.
Cole Kennelly, CEO of Volmex Finance, said tomorrow’s event could drive volatility in crypto markets, noting that “quadruple witching could trigger a spike in cross-asset volatility as large derivatives positions expire. This may already be showing up in crypto, with the Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility (BVIV) Index trending higher into the event.”
How did bitcoin perform on quadruple witching days in 2025
On March 21, bitcoin was slightly down on the day, but the more significant move came later, with prices bottoming a few weeks afterward around $76,000 following the market reaction to President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
On June 20, bitcoin declined 1.5% and continued drifting lower, reaching a local bottom near $98,000 just two days later. On September 19, Bitcoin fell over 1% on the day, but the real move unfolded in the following week, with a sharp drop from $177,000 to $108,000. Then, on December 19, bitcoin finished roughly 3% higher at around $85,000, though it remained in a broader drawdown from the October highs.
While price action on the day itself tends to be relatively muted, a consistent pattern of weakness emerges in the days to weeks that follow.
Even if the quad-witching doesn’t add to bitcoin’s volatility on Friday, crypto traders have another event, specifically for digital assets, to keep in mind.
Crypto derivatives face their own major quarterly expiry the week after, on March 27, with $13.5 billion set to expire on Deribit, where positioning points to elevated demand for volatility strategies rather than strong directional bets.
Exchange giant Coinbase’s (COIN) asset management arm is bringing its bitcoin yield fund onchain, creating a tokenized share class of the fund with $3.5 trillion fund administrator Apex Group.
The Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund, managed by Coinbase Asset Management (CBAM), will be available to investors on the Base network, Coinbase’s blockchain built on Ethereum. Apex remains the transfer agent, keeping records aligned with the fund’s net asset value.
The launch comes as global asset managers are looking at tokenization as the next frontier in how capital markets evolve, making bonds, equites and funds tradable on blockchain rails. Firms including BlackRock (BLK), Fidelity and Franklin Templeton have introduced tokenized funds in recent years, aiming to speed up settlement times, cut costs and open new distribution channels.
Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional, said the company’s asset management business already has a lot of institutional capital allocated, with many investors holding core positions in bitcoin and ether.
“Incrementally, we’re getting new capital coming to the space that wants the ability to get compounded returns, so their bet isn’t just on the appreciation of bitcoin, but while they’re waiting for it to rise in price, they’re earning yield along the way,” he told CoinDesk.
“The bitcoin yield fund allows them to do that by virtue of doing things like selling call options or participating in lending arrangements.”
Tokenized assets are potentially a multiple-trillion-dollar market, with estimates ranging from McKinsey’s projection of $2 trillion by 2030 to BCG and Ripple’s $18.9 trillion target by 2033.
Apex, a significant player in the fund service business supporting $3.5 trillion in assets, is increasingly leaning into tokenization as well. It acquired Tokeny last year, a specialist that facilitated the tokenization of over $32 billion in assets. Apex also said it plans to tokenize $100 billion in funds using the T-REX Ledger by June 2027 to manage ownership and compliance across multiple blockchains.
In the case of the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund, the tokenized share class uses the ERC-3643 token standard, which encodes investor checks directly into the token. Only approved investors can hold or transfer the asset, with identity tied to each wallet through a dedicated onboarding process.
The setup replaces manual compliance checks with automated rules. If a wallet is not cleared, the transaction fails. That could reduce friction in how institutional investors access and move fund positions.
The fund is available to non-U.S. investors, but CBAM said it plans to create a tokenized share class of the fund’s U.S.-version as well.
Prediction market provider Kalshi may be hit with a temporary restraining order from the state of Nevada after a federal appeals court declined to block such a motion on Thursday.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist order in March 2025, ordering it to stop offering sports-related prediction market contracts. However, Kalshi said a later temporary restraining order application by Nevada “sought to prohibit Kalshi from offering all its event contracts.” Kalshi tried to move the case to federal court, but the case was set to go back to a state court if the appeals court did not grant it an administrative stay.
On Thursday, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Kalshi’s motion for an administrative stay in a federal case, clearing the way for the case to get thrown back to a state court.
In its appeal filed on March 13, Kalshi warned that it “faces imminent harm” if the appeals court did not grant its motion, as “the state court proceedings would undermine Kalshi’s appellate rights in this appeal” and a related action.
The platform said that it might find itself litigating the same issue — namely, the question of whether state regulators in Nevada have any jurisdiction — in four different venues, including a Nevada state court, Nevada federal court and two different appeals court cases.
“Allowing that to happen would create an untenable risk of subjecting Kalshi to conflicting federal and state court decisions,” the filing said. “For example, the state court could enter judgment against Kalshi, finding that the CEA does not preempt state gambling laws, while this Court in Assad [another case] arrives at exactly the opposite conclusion.”
Dan Wallach, a gaming lawyer, said in a post on X that a temporary restraining order would push Kalshi out of Nevada entirely for at least two weeks, pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction.
The temporary restraining order could come in the next day or so, he said.
Kalshi and other prediction market providers are facing pushback in over a dozen state actions, with state-level regulators arguing that they have jurisdiction over at least sports-related betting products. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has argued that it has sole jurisdiction over prediction market providers, and filed an amicus brief in one of the federal cases to defend that position.
The CFTC even signed a memorandum of understanding with Major League Baseball, announced at the same time as MLB’s announcement it had partnered with Polymarket.
The negotiation to get a crypto market structure bill through its next stages in the Senate have hovered over an almost-there status for weeks, and Republican lawmakers met on Thursday to figure out how to bridge the final gaps.
The White House was expected to get some updated legislative language on Thursday, reflecting the ongoing work on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, according to people familiar with the situation. But the talks are still going, and even if the previously uncertain senators (such as Republican Thom Tillis) become satisfied with the bill’s stablecoin yield treatment, other distinct compromises (such as the approach to decentralized finance) also need to be secured before the Senate would be able to send the crypto industry’s top policy priority to President Donald Trump for a signature.
The longstanding debate that had focused on stablecoin yield — on which bankers and crypto businesses have been divided over the structure of stablecoin rewards programs — is close to a finish, the people said, though lawmakers have been discussing what else the community bankers might be offered to get their support while resolving some of their other priorities. That could include some unrelated provisions tied to Congress’ recent housing legislation, according to reporting from Politico.
Officials from Trump’s administration were said to be involved with the meeting of Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee, which is the second panel that needs to advance the bill before it would be repackaged into a final version that can get a vote of the overall Senate. Even if the effort advances from the committee by the end of April, as Senator Cynthia Lummis predicted this week, a couple of further hurdles may be out of lawmakers’ hands.
Democrats involved in the talks have said they still want senior government officials and lawmakers from profiting off of personal crypto interests — most pointedly aimed at Trump. And they want Democrats appointed to the party’s vacant seats at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before the agency adopts new crypto rules. Those are both points that could require concessions from the White House, and crypto insiders are expecting those controversial points to be the last matters settled once the lawmakers are working on a final bill.
On the yield issue, Lummis has said that stablecoin rewards programs that steer clear of bank-line language on savings and interest may survive the compromise, insisting they’re more akin to credit-card rewards than interest from bank-account deposits.
Lummis said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose opposition to a previous draft bill helped derail an earlier effort to get to a Senate hearing, has been more flexible in recent talks. The company didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on its position.
As Congress works, the Securities and Exchange Commission spent much of the week issuing and discussing new crypto policy points, including a first-ever taxonomy that sets out regulatory definitions for U.S. crypto assets. In a CoinDesk op-ed on Thursday, Chairman Paul Atkins and the two Republican commissioners suggested they’re eager to have a new law back up the policy they’re working on.
“Only Congress can rewrite the law, and we stand ready to work with [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] Chairman Michael Selig to implement the CLARITY Act,” they wrote. “In the meantime, we are providing the responsible regulatory approach that markets demand.”
JPMorgan cuts its S&P 500 target and warns investors are dangerously complacent about Iran war risks, oil above $110, and the hit to growth, earnings, and stocks.
Summary
- JPMorgan trims its year-end S&P 500 target from 7,500 to 7,200, arguing markets are making a high-risk bet on a quick Middle East resolution.
- With Brent crude above $110 and shut-ins near record levels, the bank warns each sustained 10% oil rise can shave 15–20 bps from GDP and cut S&P earnings 2–5%.
- Strategists say a deeper selloff could push the S&P 500 below its 200-day moving average toward 6,000–6,200 as demand destruction and wealth effects bite.
JPMorgan became the latest — and most prominent — Wall Street institution to sound the alarm on Thursday, cutting its year-end S&P 500 price target from 7,500 to 7,200 and warning that equity markets are making a “high-risk assumption” by pricing in a quick resolution to the Middle East conflict. The downgrade, issued as Iranian strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure sent Brent crude surging above $110 per barrel, signals a growing conviction among institutional analysts that the war’s economic fallout has been systematically underpriced.
“We believe the market is pricing in a quick end to the Middle East conflict and reopening of the Strait, giving a low probability to a potential demand hit,” JPMorgan wrote in its note. “This is a high-risk assumption given that S&P 500 and oil correlations typically turn increasingly more negative after a ~30% oil spike.”
Oil prices have surged more than 46% since the U.S. and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran, yet the S&P 500 has fallen less than 4% — a divergence that JPMorgan’s strategists view as a sign of dangerous market complacency rather than genuine resilience. While high-risk segments such as software stocks, South Korean equities, and crypto have sold off, broad equity positioning has barely shifted, with investors hedging rather than derisking in earnest.
The bank’s core warning centers not on inflation — the conventional oil shock narrative — but on demand destruction. JPMorgan argues that if the supply disruption persists, “GDP, demand, and revenues will adjust lower through forced demand destruction.” The bank estimates that each sustained 10% increase in oil prices shaves 15 to 20 basis points off GDP growth. If Brent holds near $110, consensus S&P 500 earnings estimates could fall by 2 to 5%.
The structural supply picture compounds the concern. Oil supply shut-ins have already climbed to 8 million barrels per day — the highest on record — and JPMorgan warned that cuts could reach 12 million barrels per day, equivalent to roughly 11% of global production.
JPMorgan Private Bank strategists Joe Seydl and Kriti Gupta laid out the transmission mechanism in stark terms earlier this week: oil sustained above $90 per barrel risks a 10–15% correction in the S&P 500, with international and emerging markets facing even larger spillover losses due to their higher sensitivity to global growth shocks. At $120 oil, the selling could intensify materially.
The wealth effect adds a secondary channel. With U.S. households holding over $56 trillion in stocks and mutual funds, a sustained equity drawdown would feed back into consumer spending — JPMorgan estimates a 10% drop in the S&P 500 could reduce U.S. consumer spending by approximately 1%. “The combined impact of persistently high oil prices and a bear market in the S&P 500 has a detrimental effect on demand, significantly amplifying the negative impact on growth,” the bank concluded.
If the S&P 500 selloff extends below the 200-day moving average near 6,600, the bank said meaningful support may not emerge until the 6,000–6,200 range. For now, with the war entering a dangerous new energy-infrastructure phase and no diplomatic off-ramp in sight, JPMorgan’s revised target may prove optimistic rather than cautious.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins has clarified how the agency intends to approach digital asset regulation following an interpretative notice issued this week.
In prepared remarks for a Thursday speech at the Practising Law Institute, Atkins said that the SEC would take a different approach to digital assets than its previous “regulation by enforcement” campaign. According to the SEC chair, the agency would first focus on its interpretation of how federal securities laws apply to crypto following the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week.
“[…] While the interpretation provides long-needed clarity, I should like to assure this audience that it amounts to a beginning, not an end,” said Atkins.
The agency’s interpretation, released on Tuesday, specified that most cryptocurrencies were likely not securities under federal law, with the chair telling attendees at the DC Blockchain Summit that “only one crypto asset class remains subject to the securities laws” under the agency’s interpretation: namely, “traditional securities that are tokenized.”
Atkins later clarified that digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and stablecoins were digital assets typically not falling under the SEC’s purview.
Related: SEC gives go-ahead to Nasdaq for tokenized trading trial
While the SEC interpretation could significantly change how the agency approaches crypto regulation and enforcement, a market structure bill working its way through Congress is also expected to give the CFTC more authority in regulation and oversight of digital assets. The bill, called the CLARITY Act when it passed the House of Representatives in July 2025, had not been scheduled for a markup in the Senate Banking Committee as of Thursday.
White House meets with US lawmakers behind closed doors
A spokesperson for Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis confirmed with Cointelegraph that Republican senators met with White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt on Thursday to discuss advancing the market structure bill. While the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the legislation in January, concerns over how to address stablecoin yield in the crypto and banking industry have effectively stalled progress in the Senate Banking Committee.
According to Lummis’ team, the meeting was “very productive and positive,” adding that lawmakers were “99% of the way there on stablecoin yield,” and “negotiations on the digital asset portions of the bill are in a good place.”
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
Forward Industries, a publicly traded company with a Solana-focused treasury strategy, has launched a share repurchase program funded through a crypto-backed loan from Galaxy Digital LLC, underscoring how digital assets are increasingly being used in traditional corporate finance.
The company said Thursday it will repurchase 6,164,324 shares of its common stock from an unnamed institutional investor for approximately $27.4 million, reducing total shares outstanding to 76,977,809.
Cointelegraph’s email to Forward seeking further information on the identity of the selling institutional investor was not answered prior to publication.
Public filings indicate that only six institutional investors in Forward Industries hold enough shares to sell that volume back to the company. According to filings data compiled by Fintel.io, one of those holders is Galaxy Digital LP (8.68 million shares, as of Sept. 18, 2025) and another is Galaxy Group Investments LLC (8.11 million shares, as of Feb. 18, 2026.)
To fund the buyback, Forward secured a $40 million loan from Galaxy Digital LLC at an interest rate of 3.4%. The loan is collateralized by the company’s Solana (SOL) holdings, which total 7,013,536 SOL — valued at approximately $613 million at current market prices.
The structure allows Forward to access liquidity without liquidating its crypto reserves, while continuing to generate yield through staking. The move reflects a broader trend of companies leveraging digital asset treasuries to optimize capital structure and potentially enhance shareholder returns.
The share repurchase appears to be part of Forward Industries’ November authorization to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock on an ongoing basis. At the time, the company said the program would provide financial flexibility amid heightened volatility in the crypto market.
That volatility has intensified in recent months, with Solana’s price falling below $90. The buyback may also help support Forward Industries’ stock, which is down 87% from its September peak.
Related: Crypto’s 2026 investment playbook: Bitcoin, stablecoin infrastructure, tokenized assets
Crypto treasury strategies face pressure
Forward Industries began aggressively accumulating Solana last year, when crypto treasury strategies gained traction during the bull market. The company has since built the largest publicly traded SOL treasury, with at least 18 other public companies adopting similar strategies, according to industry data.
By February, these companies collectively held more than $1.5 billion in unrealized losses tied to the broader crypto market downturn. A significant portion of those losses is attributed to Forward Industries, which is down roughly $972 million.
The sector’s volatility is likely to result in broad consolidation among crypto treasury companies, Wojciech Kaszycki of crypto infrastructure company BTCS told Cointelegraph.
Many treasury companies are under pressure as declining crypto prices push their valuations below the value of the digital assets they hold, while limited cash flow makes it harder to sustain operations.
Binance New Listing Announcement: DeepSnitch AI Looks Like the #1 Candidate in 2026
Justin Bieber and Usher clashed at Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Oscars after-party (Report)
Alan Shearer fires Bruno Guimaraes transfer ultimatum to Newcastle amid Man United advantage
Smart energy pays enters the US market, targeting scalable financial infrastructure
Why Israel is blocking foreign journalists from entering
Bitcoin: We’re Entering The Most Dangerous Phase
Crypto Futures Trading Full Course | Crypto Futures Trading For Beginners | SAGAR SINHA
How to Start Investing with Rs. 500 in Pakistan | Financial Literacy for Beginners
LIVE: BlackRock Partners with Ripple for Massive Asset Tokenization! Game Changer for XRP Holders!
-
Crypto World6 days agoHYPE Token Enters Net Deflation as HyperCore Buybacks Outpace Staking Rewards
-
Tech4 days agoYour Legally Registered ‘Motorcycle’ Might Not Count Under Proposed US Law
-
Fashion6 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Addict Lip Glow
-
Tech2 days agoAre Split Spacebars the Next Big Gaming Keyboard Trend?
-
Sports5 days ago
Why Duke and Michigan Are Dead Even Entering Selection Sunday
-
Business4 days agoSearch for Savannah Guthrie’s Mother Enters Seventh Week with No Arrests
-
Business5 days agoUS Airports Launch Donation Drives for Unpaid TSA Workers as Partial Government Shutdown Enters Fifth Week
-
Crypto World5 days ago
Coinbase and Bybit in Investment Talks: Could Bybit Finally Enter the US Crypto Market?
-
Business4 days agoAustralian shares drop as Iran war enters third week
-
Business5 days agoCountry star Brantley Gilbert enters growing non-alcoholic beer market
-
Crypto World4 days agoCrypto Lender BlockFills Enters Chapter 11 with Up to $500M in Liabilities
-
Sports6 days agoCollege Basketball Best Bets: Conference Tournament Semifinal Picks
-
Politics2 days agoThe House | The new register to protect children from their abusers shows Parliament at its best
-
Fashion3 days ago25 Celebrities with Curly Hair That Are Naturally Beautiful
-
News Videos1 day agoRBA board divided on rate cut, unusually buoyant share market | Finance Report | ABC NEWS
-
Crypto World1 day agoCanada’s FINTRAC revokes registrations of 23 crypto MSBs in AML crackdown
-
Crypto World5 days agoCrypto Losses Drop 87% in February, But Hackers Are Now Targeting People, Not Code
-
Politics2 days agoReal-time pollution monitoring calls after boy nearly dies
-
NewsBeat1 day agoResidents in North Lanarkshire reminded to register to vote in Scottish Parliament Election
-
Entertainment6 days agoBlake Lively Fights To Keep Justin Baldoni Case Alive
You must be logged in to post a comment Login