Metaplanet has officially launched Metaplanet Securities, turning its completed acquisition of Siiibo Securities into a regulated digital asset investment banking business built around Bitcoin-backed financial products.

According to Metaplanet, the new subsidiary succeeds the Tokyo-based brokerage acquired for JPY 2.1 billion, completing a transaction first announced in June.

Key takeaways

• Pi Network (PI) fell another 6% on Monday after dropping 7% the previous day, extending its prolonged downtrend.
• Retail participation continues to weaken, with Open Interest falling below $9 million, signaling declining leveraged trading activity.
• Analysts warn that ongoing token unlocks could continue to pressure prices if supply outpaces demand.

Pi Network (PI) remained under heavy selling pressure on Monday, falling around 6% after suffering a 7% decline in the previous trading session.

The continued weakness reflects fading retail participation, declining leveraged positions, and concerns that ongoing token unlocks could keep supply ahead of demand. 

Technical indicators also suggest the correction may not be over, with the token approaching a key support level near $0.075.

Retail demand continues to fade

Recent derivatives data points to weakening interest among traders. According to CoinAnk, Pi Network’s Open Interest (OI) declined to $8.48 million on Monday from $8.91 million a day earlier.

The drop in Open Interest indicates that traders are closing leveraged positions rather than opening new ones, reflecting reduced confidence and lower speculative activity around the token.

Pi Network price analysis: Bears target the $0.075 support

Technically, Pi Network has remained in a persistent downtrend since late April, forming a falling channel pattern on the daily chart.

The latest decline has pushed the token closer to the channel’s lower support trendline around $0.075.

If sellers successfully break below this level, the next significant support is located near $0.0679, which corresponds to the 1.618 Fibonacci extension measured from the previous decline between $0.1998 and $0.1183.

Technical momentum continues to favor the bears. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has fallen to approximately 10, placing the asset deep in oversold territory and highlighting the intensity of the recent selling pressure.

Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) remains below the zero line, with both the MACD and signal lines trending lower while negative histogram bars continue expanding.

Together, these indicators suggest bearish momentum remains firmly in control despite increasingly oversold conditions.

The immediate focus remains on the $0.075 support level. A decisive breakdown below this area could accelerate losses toward $0.0679, reinforcing the prevailing downtrend.

On the upside, if buyers manage to defend support and trigger a rebound, PI could first target the 1.272 Fibonacci extension at $0.0961, followed by the important $0.1000 psychological resistance.

Until stronger buying activity returns, however, Pi Network’s technical outlook continues to favor additional downside as weak retail demand and expanding token supply weigh on market sentiment.

Japanese payments adoption is moving from small pilots toward more practical, merchant-ready stablecoin use. Lawson, one of Japan’s best-known convenience-store chains, will trial yen-denominated stablecoin payments inside a real store checkout flow this August, while Netstars has launched a service that lets merchants accept multiple stablecoins as payment options.

Together, the two developments highlight how Japan’s regulated stablecoin environment is increasingly focused on integration details—how payments happen at the register, how merchants settle in yen, and what wallet or infrastructure customers need.

Key takeaways

• Lawson will run an August trial of yen-denominated stablecoin payments at a Tokyo location, using HashPort’s non-custodial wallet and Lawson’s existing point-of-sale system.
• The Lawson pilot is designed to test whether stablecoins can fit smoothly into standard convenience-store checkout operations without merchants managing crypto wallets.
• Netstars launched “Stablecoin Pay” for merchants, initially supporting USDC, USDT, and JPYC via the Solana and Polygon networks.
• Netstars says its setup helps merchants price and settle in yen while customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins, aiming to reduce crypto and exchange-rate handling for merchants.

Lawson and HashPort test stablecoin checkout in a real store

On Monday, blockchain company HashPort said it has signed an agreement with Lawson and telecom group KDDI to conduct a trial at the Lawson Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo. According to HashPort’s announcement on PRTimes, participants will use HashPort’s non-custodial wallet, while the store will process payments through HashPort’s point-of-sale integration—without the store needing to open or manage crypto wallets.

The stated goal is practical: determine how stablecoin payments can be integrated into Japan’s everyday retail infrastructure, specifically within the checkout flow of a convenience store. That matters because “accepting crypto” can look very different at the register compared with an online checkout, especially when merchants want predictable operations and minimal changes to store systems.

Before expanding beyond the pilot, the companies plan to evaluate integration requirements, checkout operations, payment processing times, and whether the wallet experience is usable for customers. The emphasis on operational metrics suggests the trial is as much about systems fit as it is about payment settlement.

Netstars rolls out a merchant service for multi-stablecoin payments

In a separate move, Netstars launched a merchant-facing product called Stablecoin Pay. The company’s announcement, also published on PRTimes, opens applications for merchants that want to offer multiple stablecoins as payment options.

Stablecoin Pay initially supports three stablecoins: USDC, USDT, and JPYC (a yen-denominated stablecoin). Netstars says these can be used through the Solana and Polygon networks, with MetaMask as the supported wallet. The company set its merchant payment fee at 0.98% and said it plans to add more wallet and blockchain support over time.

Netstars also described how the service is intended to work from a merchant operations perspective. It says that merchants can use existing payment terminals in most cases and manage product pricing, sales records, and settlement in yen even when customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins. In its framing, that reduces the need for merchants to hold crypto or handle exchange-rate complexity.

Netstars’ timeline also matters for context. The company’s commercial launch follows earlier trials it ran using USDC payments—first at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from January to February, and later at a trading-card store in Himeji starting in April, according to Netstars’ trial references. The new merchant service marks a step from location-based tests toward a broader offer aimed at business operators.

Japan’s stablecoin rules are shaping real-world product design

Both projects land in the context of Japan’s evolving stablecoin regulatory landscape. Japan introduced a dedicated stablecoin framework on June 1, 2023, when amendments to the Payment Services Act and related laws took effect. The framework created regulatory categories for fiat-linked stablecoins and requires intermediaries operating in certain capacities to register with Japan’s Financial Services Agency.

Subsequent regulatory milestones have helped specific stablecoin products become usable in Japan. Coverage noted that USDC received regulatory approval for distribution in March 2025. JPYC later registered as a fund transfer service provider that August—before the stablecoin launched in October, based on prior reporting.

For merchants and payment providers, the practical takeaway is that regulatory compliance increasingly informs product architecture. Netstars’ approach—settling in yen while accepting multiple stablecoins—reflects a design choice that keeps everyday commerce consistent for retailers. HashPort and Lawson’s trial similarly focuses on minimizing merchant operational burden by routing payment processing through an integrated point-of-sale flow and using a non-custodial customer wallet.

What to watch next for stablecoin payments in Japan

As these trials and merchant products progress, the key uncertainties are less about whether stablecoins can be transferred and more about whether the entire user-and-merchant workflow feels seamless. For Lawson’s pilot, readers should watch reported integration and checkout performance metrics—especially usability and processing time. For Netstars’ Stablecoin Pay, monitoring merchant onboarding, additional supported wallets and blockchains, and continued evidence of smooth yen settlement will indicate whether multi-stablecoin payments can scale beyond early pilots.

The term “paradigm shift” is often applied casually to what may simply be rapid rotations between fashionable assets, the latest example being the AI-driven semiconductor boom.

Hyperscalers such as Amazon (AMZ) and Google (GOOG) are spending heavily on data centres containing thousands of AI accelerators. These systems require enormous quantities of high-bandwidth memory for processing and NAND flash for storage, tightening supply and lifting chip prices.

Micron Technology (MU) produces DRAM, NAND and other memory products, while Sandisk (SNDK) specialises in NAND flash and solid-state storage. Micron rose roughly 700% year over year, and Sandisk gained more than 4,000%. Both have subsequently retreated from their peaks, illustrating how quickly enthusiasm can reverse.

The excitement created the largest U.S. IPO of all-time in SpaceX (SPCX), while SK Hynix (00060), a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, raised $26.5 billion through the largest-ever U.S. listing by a foreign company. Its ADRs initially surged, but subsequent volatility exposed the risks of buying into peak optimism with SK Hynix down 15% during Asia market hours.

Speaking at the University of Kansas School of Business this week, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse told a story the company kept to itself for more than five years. 

In December 2020, days after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple and named Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen personally, the two men seriously weighed a plan to end the fight before it began: wind the company down, distribute Ripple’s enormous XRP holdings to shareholders on a pro rata basis, and inform the regulator that the entity it was suing no longer existed and no longer held the asset in question. In Garlinghouse’s words, the government had infinite power and resources, and shutting down was the easier path. What tipped the decision the other way was not confidence in winning. It was that dissolution would have put hundreds of employees out of work.

The disclosure landed with corroboration and a correction. David Schwartz, Ripple’s longtime chief technology officer, said outside lawyers advised leadership in that period that the company was done, unsavable, and that the executives should cut a deal to save themselves, and he argued the SEC named Garlinghouse and Larsen personally as a calculated pressure tactic, since suing two men concentrates the incentive to fold in a way that suing a corporation does not. When outlets amplified the story into capitulation headlines, Schwartz pushed back, saying his earlier comments were being stretched and that he never claimed the shutdown was on the verge of happening. Garlinghouse, for his part, attached a number to the road actually taken: roughly 150 million dollars in legal fees over four years, disclosed publicly for the first time.

A confession this old is not news about the past. It is a lens on the present, because the plan Ripple shelved in December 2020 is a nearly perfect thought experiment about what XRP is. Every question that hangs over the token in 2026, whether it is a claim on Ripple’s success, what the company’s supply overhang means, and why the price ignores the company’s triumphs, gets sharper when run through the world where the giveaway happened. This feature takes the confession seriously as history, then uses it as the analytical instrument it accidentally is.

Japanese convenience-store operator Lawson plans to test yen-denominated stablecoin payments at a Tokyo location in August, examining whether stablecoin payments can work inside a standard convenience store checkout flow.

On Monday, blockchain company HashPort said it had signed an agreement with Lawson and telecom group KDDI to conduct the trial at the Lawson Takanawa Gateway City store. Participants will use HashPort’s non-custodial wallet, while the store will process payments through the company’s point-of-sale system without needing to open or manage crypto wallets. 

The pilot aims to explore how stablecoin payments can be integrated into Japan’s existing retail infrastructure while shielding merchants from much of the operational complexity associated with accepting digital assets.

The companies plan to assess integration requirements, checkout operations, payment processing times and wallet usability before considering broader applications.

Netstars launches multi-stablecoin merchant service

Separately, Japanese payments company Netstars launched Stablecoin Pay on Monday, opening applications from merchants seeking to accept multiple stablecoins as payment options. 

The service initially supports USDC, USDT and the yen-denominated JPYC through the Solana and Polygon networks, with MetaMask as the supported wallet. Netstars set the merchant payment fee at 0.98% and said it plans to add more wallets and blockchains. 

With the service, merchants can use existing payment terminals in most cases and handle product pricing, sales records and settlement in yen, even when customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins. Netstars said this removes the need to hold crypto or manage exchange rates.

The commercial launch follows Netstars trials involving USDC payments at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from January to February and at a trading-card store in Himeji from April.

Related: Japanese lender launches Bitcoin-backed loans of up to $6.2M

The move from limited pilots to a merchant-facing service comes as Japanese companies build more consumer-facing products around the country’s regulated stablecoin market. On June 1, 2023, Japan introduced a dedicated framework for stablecoins when amendments to the Payment Services Act and related laws took effect. 

The rules created regulatory categories for fiat-linked stablecoins and require businesses acting as intermediaries to register with the Financial Services Agency.

The framework was followed by regulatory approval for USDC distribution in March 2025 and by JPYC’s registration as a fund transfer service provider that August, before the stablecoin was launched in October. 

Magazine: Has Bitcoin bottomed for this cycle? Analysts say ‘not yet’

After several strongly positive weeks, USD/CAD has stalled over the past few sessions, entering a phase of uncertainty.

On the dollar side, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has struck a firm tone, reaffirming the 2% inflation target and pushing back against political pressure to cut rates, while sticky PCE inflation near 4% keeps hike odds alive for September. Yet June payrolls came in softer and speculative USD positioning looks stretched, raising doubts on how much further the rally can extend. Markets will also watch upcoming US CPI and PPI releases closely, as either gauge could reinforce the Fed hike case or, if softer, cap dollar strength.

The loonie’s story is similarly mixed. Canada’s June jobs report beat expectations, reducing the odds of a BoC cut, yet the currency remains capped by falling oil prices, subdued inflation, and unresolved CUSMA trade uncertainty. Two currencies face both genuine support and headwinds, leaving USD/CAD hostage to this week’s BoC decision and incoming US data—a backdrop that aligns well with what the chart itself is showing.

USD/CAD Technical analysis

As the 4H chart shows, USD/CAD has traded within a well-defined ascending channel since May’s lows, and is now consolidating just below recent swing highs. The Fibonacci retracement drawn from that low to the July high offers a useful reference for the levels ahead.

Bullish Scenario

As long as price holds above the ascending trendline and defends the former resistance, now turned support, in the 1.4100 area, the broader uptrend structure remains firmly intact, and this pause looks far more like healthy consolidation than an early reversal signal. A confirmed bounce off the trendline, followed by a decisive push back above the recent swing high near the 1.4250 area, would validate continued bullish control and open the way for USD/CAD to extend its rally into fresh highs for the move, keeping the dollar’s medium-term strength against the loonie firmly in place.

Bearish Scenario

A clean, sustained break below the ascending trendline would mark the first real technical warning sign, shifting near-term momentum decisively lower. In that case, the 0.382 and 0.5 Fibonacci retracement levels would become the first meaningful support tests, coinciding with the psychological 1.3900-1.4000 range. Losing these levels could expose a deeper slide towards the 0.618 retracement—an area that would confirm a genuine correction of the entire May-to-July rally rather than a simple pullback, and would put the pair’s medium-term bullish structure into serious question.

With price sitting right on the ascending trendline, the coming sessions could prove decisive in determining where USD/CAD heads next.

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