TL;DR

• Standard Chartered has become the first G-SIB to offer institutional clients direct USDC minting and redemption services.
• The new solution allows eligible clients to access USDC without opening a separate account with Circle.
• Initially launching through the bank’s DIFC operations, the service supports settlement, treasury, and liquidity management.
• The partnership underscores growing institutional demand for regulated stablecoin infrastructure despite rising competition in the sector.

Standard Chartered, currently at the fore front of the stablecoin adoption campaign, has introduced a new service that enables institutional clients to mint and redeem USDC directly through the bank, marking a significant step in the integration of traditional banking with digital assets. 

Developed in partnership with Circle Internet Group, the issuer of USDC, the offering makes Standard Chartered the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to provide institutional access to USDC minting and redemption through a single banking relationship.

Unlike existing arrangements, eligible clients will not need to open separate accounts with Circle. Instead, they can access USDC minting and redemption through Standard Chartered’s institutional platform, allowing them to move between fiat currencies and blockchain-based assets within a unified banking environment.

The service will initially be available through the bank’s Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) operations, with plans to expand into additional markets as regulatory approvals are secured.

New Service Aims to Bridge Traditional Banking and Digital Assets

Standard Chartered said the new capability is designed to simplify how institutions interact with regulated stablecoins by combining banking services, custody, and digital asset infrastructure into a single offering.

The bank expects the solution to support a wide range of institutional activities, including on-chain settlement, treasury operations, and liquidity management, while also laying the foundation for future payment-related use cases. By embedding USDC access into its existing institutional banking platform, Standard Chartered aims to provide clients with the governance, compliance, and risk management standards associated with a global financial institution.

The launch also reflects growing demand among corporations and financial institutions for regulated stablecoin infrastructure capable of supporting cross-border transactions and digital asset operations. Starting in the UAE further reinforces the country’s position as an emerging hub for regulated blockchain and digital asset innovation.

Partnership Highlights Stablecoin Adoption Despite Growing Competition

The partnership, just barely a month after another one with CoinMENA, represents another milestone for Circle as it continues expanding the reach of USDC through established financial institutions. Bringing a global systemically important bank into its ecosystem could strengthen USDC’s position among institutional users seeking regulated access to stablecoins.

The announcement also comes just hours after renewed attention on Circle’s competitive position in the stablecoin market. As earlier reported, Circle’s shares recovered modestly after a sharp selloff triggered by the launch of the OpenUSD consortium, an initiative backed by more than 140 organizations, including major financial and technology companies such as Stripe, Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock.

While some analysts have warned that increasing competition could pressure USDC’s market position over time, Standard Chartered’s decision to integrate USDC into its institutional banking services signals that demand for regulated stablecoin infrastructure continues to grow. 

Bitcoin climbed above $61,000 on Thursday, up about 4.1% over 24 hours, per CoinDesk data, its firmest footing so far this week after a sell-off sent the asset to as low as $58,200 earlier.

The lift came from the Federal Reserve. Chair Kevin Warsh told the European Central Bank’s forum in Sintra, Portugal, that inflation risks had come down, his first notably softer comment since a hawkish June rate outlook set off weeks of outflows from U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

The move stood out because it came against a rough day for tech.

South Korea’s Kospi index fell 7.9% on Thursday after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shed a combined $290 billion in market value, the second time this month the index has buckled on worries about artificial-intelligence chips, according to Bloomberg.

Meta added to the unease with plans to sell spare computing power to outside customers, a move that revived the question of whether the AI infrastructure buildout has run ahead of real demand.

Yield-bearing stablecoin supply fell by more than $3.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026, reversing nearly three years of quarterly growth as crypto-native products contracted and Treasury-backed tokens expanded. 

Crypto exchange CEX.IO reported Thursday that the category declined by 15% during Q2. Ethena’s sUSDe lost 52% of its supply, shedding nearly $2 billion, while Sky’s sUSDS declined by 16%.

Treasury-backed products moved in the opposite direction. BlackRock’s BUIDL grew by 2%, Circle’s USYC increased by nearly 16% and Ondo Finance’s USDY rose by over 66%, highlighting a widening divide between crypto-native yield assets and products backed by traditional assets. 

The divergence came as the broader stablecoin market recorded its first quarterly contraction since the third quarter of 2023, according to CEX.io. Total supply fell to $312 billion in Q2, while adjusted transaction volume declined by 5.5%. 

Supply growth per quarter, compiled by CEX.io. Source: CEX.io

Stablecoin slowdown deepens after weaker Q1 signals

The Q2 decline marks a sharp reversal from the start of 2026. In Q1, stablecoin supply increased by about $8 billion to a record $315 billion, with yield-bearing products among the main growth drivers. 

However, signs of weakening organic demand had already emerged early in the year. During the first quarter, retail-sized transfers fell by 16%, while automated activity accounted for roughly 76% of stablecoin transaction volume. 

The slowdown continued through Q2. According to CEX.io, total stablecoin transaction counts fell by 530 million to 4.48 billion, the largest quarterly decline on record. However, transfers below $250 increased by 5% to $19.39 billion, suggesting that smaller peer-to-peer payments were more resilient than larger automated and trading flows. 

Related: Financial companies join forces for US dollar stablecoin, keeping reserve earnings

Contraction comes amid weaker crypto market activity

The stablecoin contraction also adds to broader concerns about weakening activity across crypto markets. On Wednesday, institutional data provider Talos identified declining stablecoin supply alongside spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows and slower Bitcoin purchases by Strategy as three key demand channels that weakened in Q2. 

Tanay Ved, senior research associate at Talos, told Cointelegraph that a recovery in stablecoin supply would signal “fresh capital coming back into the ecosystem more broadly” and help support onchain liquidity.

Ved said spot ETF flows remain the most important demand channel to watch because they tend to reflect more durable shifts in institutional appetite. However, he added that ETF flows, corporate Bitcoin purchases and stablecoin supply often move together when market momentum changes. 

Magazine: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express

Ethereum layer-2 network Taiko has brought its bridge back online after an exploit on June 21 disrupted withdrawals and movement of funds. The protocol announced on Thursday that users can once again transfer assets to and from the network following completion of the last step in its multi-stage recovery process.

Taiko said it has made affected users whole and that any remaining withdrawal limits are intended as temporary safeguards rather than an ongoing restriction on normal bridge usage. The reopening concluded an 11-day period during which the bridge remained closed while security fixes were implemented and the bridge’s 1:1 backing status was restored.

Key takeaways

• Taiko reopened its bridge after an 11-day outage tied to a June 21 exploit.
• In its recovery update, Taiko said it restored full operations and completed the final stage of a four-step plan.
• The protocol stated affected users have been fully reimbursed, while any remaining withdrawal limits are temporary precautions.
• Taiko previously said the incident involved compromised chain-state verification that allowed forged proofs and unauthorized withdrawals.
• The network has not yet detailed exactly how its 1:1 bridge backing was restored or whether any stolen assets were recovered.

Bridge reopening after a four-stage recovery

On Thursday, Taiko posted that transfers to and from the Taiko network were operational again after users completed the last stage of the protocol’s recovery steps. The announcement framed the reopening as the end of the most disruptive phase of the incident response, when the bridge was paused to prevent further unauthorized movement.

The bridge disruption stemmed from a compromise of the chain-state verification mechanism used by Taiko. According to earlier reporting cited by Cointelegraph, the attacker’s access enabled forged proofs to be accepted, which in turn allowed withdrawals from Taiko’s Ethereum vault.

Taiko said the bridge is now operating with restored backing and that the network had progressed through four stages to address the issue. The project also indicated it had verified that the finalized state of the chain does not include forged checkpoints or attacker-controlled claims that could still be executed.

What went wrong on June 21

The exploit took place on June 21. The core failure, as described in the reporting that accompanied Taiko’s response, was the attacker’s compromise of Taiko’s chain-state verification mechanism. That meant the system could accept proofs that should not have been valid, creating a path for unauthorized withdrawals through the bridge to the underlying Ethereum vault.

Security companies cited in the earlier coverage said the incident may have resulted in up to $1.7 million being taken. The event highlights a recurring risk in cross-chain bridge architectures: when verification assumptions break, attackers can exploit proof-handling logic to move assets away from intended custody rules.

Following the bridge reopening, Taiko’s token briefly rose to around $0.35 before falling back to roughly $0.14. That short-lived move reflected renewed market access to transfers, though the token’s trading range suggests investors remained cautious about the full details of the incident and remediation.

Security fixes, backing restoration, and remaining limits

Taiko had already laid out its recovery plan on Sunday, describing a four-stage approach. The network said it deployed security fixes and then verified the chain’s finalized state to ensure it contained no forged checkpoints or attacker claims. It also stated that the changes were submitted through its security council and reviewed by independent security experts.

After those software and verification steps, Taiko said the system then replenished the bridge so that assets issued on the layer-2 network are backed 1:1 by assets held on Ethereum. With the bridge now reopened, that backing restoration is central to the protocol’s claim that users can transfer funds again without taking on unmanaged bridge risk.

As an extra layer of caution, Taiko introduced conservative withdrawal quotas. The project said these limits are not expected to interfere with normal bridge usage, though it did not specify the quota size or how long the temporary restrictions would remain in effect.

Notably, Taiko has not publicly explained the specific operational steps it used to restore the bridge’s 1:1 backing, nor has it stated whether any of the assets taken during the exploit were recovered. The protocol indicated it would publish a full postmortem describing the incident and its response, which is likely to be a key point of follow-up for users and auditors.

Why this matters for users and the broader DeFi stack

For Taiko users, the bridge is the key interface between the layer-2 environment and Ethereum, so keeping it closed affects everything from liquidity movement to routine redeployments of capital. By reopening the bridge and stating that affected users were made whole, Taiko is attempting to restore user confidence and reduce the operational friction that comes with paused cross-chain movement.

For the wider market, the episode is another reminder that layer-2 bridging continues to concentrate risk around proof verification and custody assumptions. Even when the impact is limited relative to the size of the broader ecosystem, an exploit that forces bridge shutdowns can interrupt DeFi operations and affect how quickly liquidity can be rebalanced across networks.

The decision to implement withdrawal quotas after reopening also signals the trade-off protocols are increasingly making after incidents: restoring functionality while controlling the rate at which funds can exit, giving teams time to monitor systems and confirm that the fixes behave as intended in real-world conditions.

Going forward, the most important items for Taiko users to watch are the promised postmortem—especially any detail on how 1:1 backing was restored and whether recovery occurred—and how long the temporary withdrawal limits remain in place. Those answers will help determine whether the reopening is purely operational restoration or the start of a longer stabilization period for the bridge and surrounding smart contract components.

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OpenAI has explored the idea of granting the U.S. government a 5% equity stake as part of efforts to strengthen ties with the Trump administration and broaden public participation in the benefits of artificial intelligence, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The proposal, which remains in the conceptual stage, was reportedly raised by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during early discussions with U.S. officials, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the talks.

The idea would see leading U.S. AI companies contribute similar shares of equity to a public investment vehicle, drawing inspiration from Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which distributes returns from state investments to residents.

The initiative is intended to address growing political scrutiny of the industry by giving the public a direct financial stake in the sector’s long-term growth. Discussions reportedly involved senior Trump administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, although any such arrangement would likely require Congressional approval.

It’s unclear whether other companies with interests in AI, including Anthropic, Google (GOOG) and Meta (META), would support the proposal, the FT said.

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, declined to comment to the FT. CoinDesk has reached out to OpenAI for further comment.

The San Francisco-based company confidentially filed draft IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. The company has since indicated it has not committed to a listing timeline. Recent reports suggest advisers are weighing a delay until 2027.

Key Highlights

• KWM stock declined in pre-market hours following the complete liquidation of 88 BTC to service outstanding debt obligations.
• The entertainment company terminated its Bitcoin treasury strategy in under twelve months.
• Available financing capacity has been reallocated toward artificial intelligence infrastructure investments.
• KWM plans to divest Play Co. subsidiary while pursuing debt reduction initiatives.
• The company faces additional pressure from Nasdaq listing compliance requirements.

Shares of K Wave Media (KWM) experienced declines during pre-market activity following the company’s decision to liquidate its complete Bitcoin holdings and terminate its cryptocurrency treasury initiative. The stock decreased 1.36% to reach $0.1450, building on the prior session’s 1.01% decline that brought shares to $0.1470. This transaction occurred as part of a comprehensive corporate reorganization that reallocates resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure while reducing liabilities.

K Wave Media Ltd., KWM

Complete liquidation of cryptocurrency treasury holdings

K Wave Media executed the sale of its entire 88 BTC position on May 6, 2026, generating proceeds totaling $64.2 million through the transaction. The company applied these funds to satisfy existing debt obligations, effectively eliminating cryptocurrency assets from its financial statements. Consequently, KWM maintains zero digital currency exposure following a treasury program that lasted fewer than twelve months.

The Nasdaq-listed Korean entertainment enterprise had initially embraced Bitcoin through an ambitious capital raising initiative throughout 2025. The company secured access to $1 billion in financing through two distinct funding arrangements. These consisted of a $500 million Share Purchase Agreement with Anson Funds alongside a $500 million Standby Equity Purchase Agreement with Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

The original strategic framework allocated 80% of specified net proceeds toward cryptocurrency acquisitions. K Wave Media subsequently purchased 88 BTC during July 2025 to establish its inaugural treasury holdings. Nevertheless, mounting debt pressures combined with evolving capital allocation priorities prompted a complete reversal of this approach.

Share price deteriorates amid strategic transformation

KWM equity experienced significant deterioration following the May announcement regarding its operational pivot. Shares plummeted 24% on the disclosure date as the organization redirected financial resources away from cryptocurrency holdings. Furthermore, continued pre-market weakness demonstrated ongoing investor concerns regarding the restructuring process.

On May 4, K Wave Media disclosed potential reallocation of approximately $485 million in remaining financing availability. Management outlined intentions to pursue AI infrastructure opportunities, encompassing data center facilities, graphics processing unit resources, and strategic acquisitions. Accordingly, the Bitcoin liquidation occurred merely two days following this strategic announcement.

K Wave Media simultaneously initiated divestiture proceedings for Play Co., its primary operating subsidiary. This disposition targets elimination of approximately $48 million in combined debt and liabilities, subject to shareholder authorization. Collectively, these measures transformed KWM from a cryptocurrency treasury narrative into an AI infrastructure restructuring situation.

Financial constraints motivate comprehensive transformation

K Wave Media’s cryptocurrency exit underscores the challenges confronting smaller-capitalization treasury strategies. Larger institutional holders possess capacity to endure extended valuation declines, whereas smaller enterprises encounter more restrictive funding conditions and liquidity constraints. Consequently, balance sheet leverage and capital availability often prove more determinative than cryptocurrency valuations themselves.

The organization has pursued additional restructuring measures throughout June 2026. Management terminated its share purchase arrangement with Solaire while planning retirement of approximately 9.8 million ordinary shares. This quantity represents roughly 13% of total outstanding equity.

K Wave Media received notification from Nasdaq regarding minimum market capitalization requirements on June 18, 2026. Company representatives indicated commitment to achieving compliance standards. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on July 10, 2026, regarding a proposed corporate rebranding to Talivar Technologies.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $60,000 during Thursday’s European trading hours as traders priced out the prospect of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in July.

The so-called dovish repricing occurred after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks have eased.

In currency markets, the Japanese yen strengthened to 161.20 per U.S. dollar from its 40-year low of 162.84. The sudden upswing in the yen during European hours triggered rumors that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) may have intervened to support its weakening currency.While the BOJ recently raised its interest rate to 1%, the move failed to halt the yen’s slide, and understandably so. With U.S. interest rates at 3.5%, the dollar remains attractive to investors.

From a crypto perspective, the yen and bitcoin have developed a strong correlation.