Crypto World
ParaFi Capital Invests $35M in Jupiter to Accelerate Growth
Jupiter, a Solana-based on-chain trading and liquidity aggregation protocol, has secured a $35 million strategic investment from ParaFi Capital, marking the first instance of outside capital for a project that previously grew through bootstrapped, profitable expansion. The deal features market-priced token purchases with no discount and an extended lockup, settled entirely in Jupiter’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, JupUSD. In addition to the funding, ParaFi was granted warrants to acquire more Jupiter tokens at higher prices, a structure designed to align long-term interests. In this context, Jupiter’s native asset JUP (CRYPTO: JUP) figures prominently as the vehicle for long-run upside. The round comes as Jupiter reports more than $1 trillion in trading volume over the past year and continues broadening its product suite beyond swaps into perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins.
Key takeaways
- ParaFi Capital led a $35 million strategic investment in Jupiter, structured as market-priced token purchases with a long lockup and settled in JupUSD.
- The deal includes warrants enabling ParaFi to acquire additional JUP tokens at higher prices, signaling long-term alignment with Jupiter’s roadmap.
- Jupiter has expanded beyond swap routing to offer perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins, and it has processed over $1 trillion in trading volume in the last year.
- The project has actively diversified into on-chain finance tools, including an on-chain prediction market beta with Kalshi and the January launch of JupUSD.
- The news helped lift JUP by roughly 9% in the 24 hours after the announcement, underscoring continued investor interest in DeFi infrastructure on Solana.
Tickers mentioned: $JUP
Sentiment: Bullish
Price impact: Positive. The investment news coincided with a notable uptick in JUP’s price, reflecting market optimism about Jupiter’s expanded capabilities.
Trading idea (Not Financial Advice): Hold. The capital infusion and warrants suggest a longer runway for product development, though investors should monitor how Jupiter executes its expanded roadmap and uses the new capital.
Market context: The round aligns with a broader wave of venture funding flowing into decentralized protocols and on-chain infrastructure, as capital seeks to back liquidity, risk management, and settlement layers within DeFi ecosystems. This pattern has been visible alongside other notable token-based financings in the sector during 2025–2026.
Why it matters
The ParaFi-led investment marks a significant milestone for Jupiter, signaling growing institutional confidence in Solana-native DeFi protocols that aim to consolidate liquidity, trade execution, and on-chain settlement under one roof. By choosing a structure that includes market-priced token purchases and warrants, the arrangement ties ParaFi’s upside to Jupiter’s longer-term success, rather than providing a one-time liquidity boost. For Jupiter, the capital provides runway to accelerate product development without sacrificing profitability—an important distinction after years of bootstrapped growth. For users and developers, the deal intensifies Jupiter’s stance as a backbone for DeFi activity on Solana, potentially delivering deeper liquidity, smarter routing, and more efficient settlement mechanisms through JupUSD.
The expansion of Jupiter’s product line is a critical component of this shift. In addition to swap routing, Jupiter is building out perpetuals and lending services, as well as stablecoins to enable seamless on-chain settlement. The launch of JupUSD in January, a dollar-pegged stablecoin native to Solana and built with Ethena Labs, signals a deliberate move toward on-chain, fiat-pegged settlement that can improve capital efficiency and reduce counterparty risk for traders and liquidity providers alike. The related on-chain prediction market initiative with Kalshi, launched in beta in October, further underscores Jupiter’s ambition to fuse price discovery, liquidity, and risk management into a single ecosystem on Solana.
The market reaction to Jupiter’s disclosures has been positive, with the native token rising by around 9% in the 24 hours following the announcement, according to CoinGecko data. This price movement, while not a guarantee of future performance, reflects investor enthusiasm for projects that combine high-throughput liquidity networks with on-chain settlement and sophisticated risk tools. The broader context—an ecosystem where on-chain finance and decentralized infrastructure attract steady VC attention—adds further momentum to Jupiter’s trajectory.
Beyond Jupiter, the DeFi landscape has recently seen a flurry of large-value, token-based rounds aimed at expanding decentralized infrastructure. In October, a16z Crypto invested $50 million in Jito, a Solana-based liquid staking protocol, while in January Babylon reportedly raised $15 million from a16z Crypto to advance Bitcoin-native staking and on-chain credit. The sustained interest from top-tier venture funds indicates a broader conviction that decentralized protocols with robust tokenomics and real-use cases can scale alongside centralized finance. Other notable funding rounds have come from entities like Maelstrom Fund and Animoca Brands in support of Bio Protocol, an AI-native, blockchain-based framework for biomedical research, and from Pantera Capital and Jump Crypto in Humanity Protocol’s on-chain identity initiative.
As this trend persists, Jupiter’s latest round not only validates its business model but also helps to illuminate how scalable, on-chain settlements can coexist with high-throughput liquidity networks on Solana. The combination of liquid trading, diversified product lines, and on-chain settlement tools positions Jupiter as a potential anchor in a growing web of DeFi primitives that increasingly rely on tokens to align incentives across developers, liquidity providers, and traders.
For readers tracking the evolution of decentralized protocols, the next few quarters should reveal how aggressively the warrants are exercised, how JupUSD’s liquidity and settlement metrics develop, and how the Kalshi-backed prediction market performs in terms of user engagement and capital flow. The ongoing expansion of product offerings—from lending and perpetuals to stablecoins and predictive markets—will be a key barometer of whether Jupiter can translate capital infusions into durable network effects and sustainable economics on Solana.
As Jupiter advances its roadmap, investors and users should watch for concrete milestones related to governance, liquidity benchmarks, and further partnerships that can broaden ecosystem participation. The investment from ParaFi Capital could serve as a catalyst for more targeted development, clearer revenue pathways, and enhanced liquidity, reinforcing Solana’s position as a platform capable of hosting complex financial primitives while maintaining efficiency and speed.
The story around Jupiter and ParaFi is a case study in how traditional VC capital is beginning to anchor decentralized finance projects that prioritize on-chain settlement, scalable liquidity, and diversified product suites. With JUP gaining traction and JupUSD opening new pathways for stable, on-chain transactions, the ecosystem stands at a pivotal juncture where institutional backing could accelerate the maturation of Solana-native DeFi infrastructure.
What to watch next
- ParasFi’s warrant exercise and any subsequent token issuance or pricing impacts.
- Usage and liquidity growth metrics for JupUSD and its role in on-chain settlement.
- Progress and user adoption metrics for the Kalshi-powered on-chain prediction market.
- Continued VC interest in Solana-native DeFi protocols, with attention to other rounds like Jito and Babylon.
- Any regulatory or macro developments affecting on-chain finance and SOL ecosystem participants.
Sources & verification
- Official statements or announcements from Jupiter and ParaFi detailing the $35 million investment and the warrants structure.
- Jupiter price data and market metrics from CoinGecko, including the 24-hour price movement for JUP.
- Public information on the JupUSD stablecoin launch with Ethena Labs and its on-chain settlement use case.
- News coverage of Kalshi-backed on-chain prediction market beta and subsequent developments.
- Related venture-funding milestones in the DeFi space, including a16z Crypto investments in Jito and Babylon, as well as supports for Bio Protocol and Humanity Protocol.
Strategic investment anchors Jupiter’s DeFi expansion and on-chain settlement
Jupiter has closed a strategic round from ParaFi Capital worth $35 million, a milestone as the Solana-native protocol transitions from bootstrapped growth to institutional backing. The deal features market-priced token purchases with no discount and an extended lockup, settled entirely in Jupiter’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, JupUSD. In addition to the funding, ParaFi was granted warrants to acquire more Jupiter tokens at higher prices, a structure designed to align long-term interests. The token involved in the deal is Jupiter’s native asset JUP (CRYPTO: JUP), a factor contributing to market sentiment around the round.
The round signals a broader shift in the DeFi landscape toward professional capital backing on-chain infrastructure. Jupiter has reported more than $1 trillion in trading volume over the past year and has expanded beyond swap routing to offer perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins. The funding is intended to support continued product development and a more robust ecosystem around liquidity aggregation, pricing, and settlement, with the warrants providing upside potential tied to Jupiter’s long-run success.
Following the capital infusion, Jupiter rolled out continued product expansion, including a beta on an on-chain prediction market developed with Kalshi in October and the January launch of JupUSD, a Solana-native, dollar-pegged stablecoin built in partnership with Ethena Labs. This trajectory points to a broader ambition: to fuse liquidity networks with sophisticated settlement and risk-management tools in a single, seamless ecosystem. The market has already begun to respond, with JUP up roughly 9% in the 24 hours after the announcement, underscoring investor interest in DeFi-enabled infrastructure with clear, real-world use cases.
In the broader context, the DeFi landscape has seen a series of token-based rounds aimed at expanding decentralized protocols and on-chain capabilities. For instance, a16z Crypto’s investment in Jito and Babylon’s funding round illustrate a trend of large venture capital allocations targeting decentralized finance and its ancillary segments. These moves, alongside funding for Bio Protocol and Humanity Protocol, demonstrate a growing appetite among institutions to back projects that bridge AI, biotech, identity, and on-chain finance. The momentum suggests a maturing market where capital is increasingly tied to platforms that can deliver scalable liquidity, cross-asset risk management, and on-chain settlement at scale.
As Jupiter navigates this expansion, the key tests will be how effectively ParaFi’s warrants translate into sustained token demand, how quickly JupUSD gains liquidity and adoption across trading venues, and how the Kalshi-backed prediction market vendor and its user base evolve. If these elements align, Jupiter’s model could become a more durable backbone for DeFi liquidity and settlement on Solana, a network that continues to attract developers and capital seeking high-performance on-chain finance.
The Governance Exploit Nobody Is Pricing In. Bridges get hacked. That’s old news. We’ve seen the carnage: nine-figure exploits, drained liquidity, emergency shutdowns, Twitter threads filled with “funds are safu” copium.
From Ronin Network to Wormhole, bridge exploits have become a recurring tax on innovation. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. The next systemic risk in crypto probably won’t be a bridge exploit. It’ll be a governance exploit enabled by cross-chain voting power. And almost nobody is pricing it in.
The Shift: From Asset Bridges to Power Bridges
Cross-chain infrastructure has evolved.
We’re no longer just bridging tokens for yield. We’re bridging:
Protocols increasingly allow governance tokens to exist on multiple chains simultaneously — often via wrapped representations or omnichain token standards (like those enabled by LayerZero Labs).
This improves capital efficiency and participation.
But it also introduces a new attack surface:
The separation of voting power from finality.
The Core Problem: Governance Is Local. Voting Power Is Not.
Governance contracts typically live on a single “home” chain.
But voting power can be represented across multiple chains.
This creates a dangerous gap:
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Tokens are locked on Chain A
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Voting power is mirrored on Chain B
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Governance decisions are executed on Chain A
If the system relies on cross-chain messaging to sync voting balances, any delay, exploit, or manipulation in that messaging layer becomes a governance vector.
You don’t need to drain liquidity.
You just need to distort voting power long enough.
And governance proposals often pass with shockingly low turnout.
The Attack Path Nobody Talks About
Let’s walk through a hypothetical.
Step 1: Acquire or Manipulate Voting Power Cross-Chain
An attacker:
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Borrows governance tokens
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Bridges them to a secondary chain
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Exploits a delay in balance updates
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Or abuses inconsistencies in wrapped token accounting
In poorly designed systems, the same underlying tokens may temporarily influence voting in multiple domains.
Even if briefly.
Even if “just a bug.”
Governance doesn’t need hours. It needs one block.
Step 2: Flash Governance
We’ve already seen governance flash-loan exploits in DeFi.
The most infamous example? The attack on Beanstalk in 2022.
The attacker used flash loans to acquire massive voting power, passed a malicious proposal, and drained ~$182M.
Now imagine that dynamic — but across chains.
Flash-loaned tokens → bridged representation → governance vote → malicious proposal executed → unwind.
All before the watchers even understand what happened.
Step 3: Proposal Payloads as Weapons
Governance proposals can:
If cross-chain voting power is compromised, the proposal payload becomes the exploit.
No bridge drain required.
Just governance “working as designed.”
Why Markets Aren’t Pricing This Risk
Three reasons.
1. Everyone Is Still Fighting the Last War
After major bridge hacks, teams hardened signature validation and multisig thresholds.
But governance-layer risk is subtler.
It doesn’t show up as “TVL at risk” on dashboards.
It shows up as “who controls protocol direction.”
That’s harder to quantify.
2. Voting Participation Is Low
Many DAOs struggle to get 10–20% participation.
Which means:
You don’t need 51%.
You need slightly more than apathy.
Cross-chain voting power distortions don’t need to be massive. They just need to be decisive.
3. Composability Multiplies Complexity
Modern governance stacks combine:
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Delegation contracts
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Token wrappers
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Cross-chain messaging
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Snapshot systems
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Execution timelocks
Each layer introduces potential inconsistencies.
And composability means failures cascade.
Where the Real Risk Lives
This isn’t about one protocol.
It’s systemic.
The more governance tokens become:
The more fragile governance assumptions become.
If a governance token is:
You’ve built a multi-dimensional voting derivative.
And derivatives break under stress.
Ask TradFi. They have scars.
The Governance Exploit Nobody Is Pricing In
Markets price:
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Smart contract risk
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Bridge exploit risk
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Oracle manipulation risk
But they do not price:
Cross-domain voting synchronization risk.
No dashboards are tracking:
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Governance message latency
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Cross-chain vote desync windows
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Wrapped-token vote inflation
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Double-counted delegation
Yet these variables may determine who controls billion-dollar treasuries.
What Builders Should Be Doing (Now)
If you’re designing cross-chain governance:
1. Separate Voting Power from Bridged Liquidity
Avoid naïve 1:1 mirroring without strict finality checks.
2. Introduce Vote Finality Windows
Require:
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Cross-chain state verification
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Message settlement delays
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Proof-of-lock confirmations
Before votes are counted.
3. Use Decay or Cooldowns on Newly Bridged Tokens
Voting power shouldn’t activate instantly after bridging.
If tokens just moved chains 5 seconds ago, maybe they shouldn’t decide protocol destiny.
4. Simulate Governance Stress Scenarios
Run adversarial simulations:
If your governance model breaks under simulation, it will break in production.
What Investors Should Be Asking
Before allocating to a multi-chain DAO:
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Where does governance live?
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How is voting power mirrored?
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Can voting power be double-counted during bridge latency?
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What happens if the messaging layer stalls?
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Is there a time lock between the vote and execution?
If the answers are vague, the risk is real.
And it’s not priced in.
The Inevitable Wake-Up Call
Crypto learns through catastrophe.
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Smart contract exploits → audits became standard.
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Oracle exploits → TWAP and redundancy
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Bridge hacks → validator hardening
Governance-layer cross-chain exploits are likely next.
And when it happens, it won’t look like a hack.
It’ll look like a proposal that “passed.”
That’s the scary part.
Final Thought
Cross-chain infrastructure is powerful. It enables capital mobility, global participation, and modular design.
But it also decouples authority from location.
And when authority becomes fluid across chains, attackers don’t need to steal funds.
They just need to win a vote.
That’s the governance exploit nobody is pricing in.
And by the time the market does, it’ll already be too late.
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Global financial services firm Payoneer is the latest in a growing number of companies that have filed for a national trust banking charter in the US, which could enable it to issue a stablecoin and provide various crypto services.
Payoneer said on Tuesday it filed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form PAYO Digital Bank, a week after it partnered with stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge to add stablecoin capabilities to its platform that is mainly focused on cross-border transactions.
Payoneer said that it is seeking to issue a GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin, PAYO-USD, to serve as the holding currency in Payoneer wallets, in addition to allowing customers to pay and receive stablecoins.
OCC approval would also enable Payoneer to manage PAYO-USD reserves, offer custodial services and enable customers to convert between the stablecoins into their local currency.
“We believe stablecoins will play a meaningful role in the future of global trade,” said Payoneer CEO John Caplan.
The OCC gave conditional approval to Crypto.com for a charter on Monday, adding to the banking charters won by crypto companies Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo and Paxos in December.
Related: Better, Framework Ventures reach $500M stablecoin mortgage financing deal
The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial also applied for one in January to expand the use of its USD1 (USD1) stablecoin, but is still awaiting a decision.
Crypto trading platform Laser Platform also submitted an application in January, while Coinbase has been awaiting a decision on its application since October.
Stablecoins ideal for business cross-border transfers: Payoneer
Payoneer said OCC approval would allow it to offer its nearly two million customers, which are mostly small and medium-sized businesses, a regulated stablecoin solution to simplify cross-border trade.
“This offering will help advance the use of the USD in global trade, reduce barriers for American companies competing internationally, and expand the dollar’s presence across non-dollar payment corridors,” it said.
In December, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said that new entrants to the federal banking sector was “good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy [as] they provide access to new products, services and sources of credit to consumers, and ensure a dynamic, competitive and diverse banking system.”
Magazine: Did a Hong Kong fund kill Bitcoin? Bithumb’s ‘phantom’ BTC: Asia Express
Bitcoin price is attempting a recovery near $65,000 as the Coinbase Premium turns positive despite recent exchange-traded fund outflows.
Summary
- Bitcoin price prediction leans towards trend reversal as the Coinbase Premium flips positive.
- The metric indicates strong U.S. demand returning after recent ETF outflows.
- Price must reclaim key resistance to confirm a stronger recovery.
Bitcoin was trading at $65,907 at press time, up 3.4% in the last 24 hours. The move follows a drop to $62,900 within the past week, where buyers stepped in.
Even with the bounce, Bitcoin (BTC) is still down 24% over the past month and about 50% below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,050.
Trading activity increased during the recovery. Spot volume reached $46 billion, up 22% day over day. In derivatives markets, CoinGlass data shows futures volume up 6.2% to $74.8 billion, while open interest slipped 0.1% to $43.9 billion.
This suggests some traders are closing positions rather than adding aggressive leverage.
Coinbase premium turns positive
On Feb. 25, the Coinbase Premium Index turned positive for the first time in 40 days, hitting 0.0525%, according to CoinGlass.
The index measures the price difference between Coinbase and global exchanges. A positive reading means Bitcoin trades slightly higher on Coinbase, which often reflects stronger U.S. demand.
This shift comes at a time when U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded heavy outflows, with roughly $3.8 billion exiting recently. That contrast is important. While ETFs have seen capital leave, the premium suggests some U.S. buyers are stepping back in through exchange flows.
In past cycles, sustained positive premiums have aligned with accumulation phases and relief rallies. However, a single flip does not confirm a trend change. Traders will watch if the premium widens and holds over several sessions.
Bitcoin price prediction: Is the trend reversing?
Bitcoin is attempting to stabilize after a sharp corrective phase. On the daily chart, price is still trading below its short-term trend pivot near the mid-Bollinger band around the high -$67,000 area.
That zone now acts as the line that separates a relief bounce from a stronger recovery attempt.
Momentum indicators show improvement from oversold conditions, with the relative strength index climbing from sub-30 levels earlier in February. Bulls have not yet completely taken back control, though, as the RSI is still below the midpoint.
The recovery might reach the low -$70,000 area if the Coinbase Premium holds positive and Bitcoin breaks through the mid-band resistance with growing spot volume. A move into that zone would shift short-term structure and increase confidence that the trend has reversed.
On the other hand, failure to reclaim resistance would keep the price vulnerable to another pullback toward the mid -$64,000 area. A break below that support would raise the risk of a deeper move toward $60,000.
TLDR
- Binance has relaunched tokenized stocks trading through a partnership with Ondo Finance on Binance Alpha.
- The platform lists 10 tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs, and commodity-linked products.
- Users in the United States cannot access the new tokenized stock offerings.
- Binance previously halted a similar service in 2021 after regulatory scrutiny in Europe.
- Ondo Finance has recorded over $550 million in locked value and $11 billion in cumulative trading volume since September 2025.
Binance has relaunched tokenized stocks trading through a new partnership with Ondo Finance. The exchange will list 10 tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs, and commodity-linked products on Binance Alpha. The move marks Binance’s return to this market nearly five years after halting a similar service.
Binance and Ondo Finance Launch Tokenized Equities on Alpha
Binance has partnered with Ondo Finance to introduce tokenized versions of major U.S. equities on Binance Alpha. The platform operates within Binance Wallet and targets early-stage digital asset offerings. Users can trade blockchain-based versions of Apple, Google, Tesla, and Nvidia shares.
The lineup also includes the Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq index. Binance confirmed that users in the United States cannot access these tokenized stocks. Jeff Li, Binance’s vice president of product, said, “Our users now have even more convenient ways to explore and trade tokenized stocks.”
Binance Alpha allows access to projects before they reach the centralized spot marketplace. The company positions the platform as a gateway for higher-risk digital assets. Through this structure, Binance expands product access while keeping trading within its wallet ecosystem.
Ondo Finance issues the tokenized equities listed on the platform. The company focuses on bridging traditional financial assets with blockchain networks. Binance integrates these tokens directly into its wallet infrastructure.
Binance previously launched tokenized stocks in April 2021, starting with Tesla shares. The exchange later added Coinbase, Strategy, Microsoft, and Apple to the offering. However, regulators in the United Kingdom and Germany raised compliance concerns.
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority and Germany’s BaFin reviewed the product structure. Following regulatory scrutiny, Binance discontinued the service within months. The company has now resumed tokenized equities through its collaboration with Ondo Finance.
Last month, Binance stated that it was considering a renewed push into tokenized equities. The latest listings on Binance Alpha confirm that plan. The rollout follows growing activity in blockchain-based stock trading platforms.
Tokenized Stocks Market Expands Across Exchanges
Tokenized stocks have grown across crypto exchanges and traditional brokerages. The sector’s total value approaches $1 billion, according to recent market data. Ondo Finance reports more than $550 million in locked value.
The company also recorded $11 billion in cumulative trading volume since September 2025. Other exchanges, including Kraken, Bybit, and Gemini, have introduced similar products. Robinhood has also launched tokenized equity trading services.
Traditional exchanges have also outlined plans involving stock tokens. Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have presented proposals tied to blockchain-based trading models. These developments align with Binance’s renewed entry into tokenized equities through Ondo Finance.
The biggest Bitcoin ATM operator in the US has begun phasing in a new requirement for users to provide identification for every transaction at its crypto ATMs amid increasing pressure from regulators and lawmakers for operators to curb illicit activity.
Bitcoin Depot said on Tuesday that it began the rollout earlier in February across the company’s US network ATMs, with the goal of helping to detect suspicious activity in real time and eliminate misuse by bad actors, such as account sharing, identity theft, and account takeover.
“Continuous verification allows us to detect suspicious activity based on customers, locations, or transaction amount before a transaction is approved,” Bitcoin Depot CEO Scott Buchanan said in a statement.
Bitcoin Depot implemented ID requirements in October, but only for all new users to its service. Buchanan said that “by requiring identity verification at every transaction, we are taking an additional step to strengthen security, protect customers, and maintain the integrity of our services.”
The US is the largest hub for Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, with Coin ATM Radar listing 31,360 machines, accounting for 78% of the worldwide total. Bitcoin Depot is the market leader in the country with 9,019 kiosks.
Bitcoin Depot faces state-level lawsuits
Scammers have long used crypto ATMs as a way to receive funds from unwitting victims, as the kiosks are widespread and their transactions are irreversible, leading regulators and lawmakers to crack down on crypto ATM operators.
The advocacy organisation, the American Association of Retired Persons, reported in February that 17 US states have passed laws requiring crypto ATM operators to implement protections, including daily transaction limits, fraud warning signs, and licensing requirements.
Related: Crypto ATM limits and bans sweep across US: Here’s why
Bitcoin Depot has caught the ire of state regulators, as Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued Bitcoin Depot earlier this month, alleging the company has not implemented sufficient safeguards to prevent scams. Campbell is seeking a court order to bar Bitcoin Depot from processing large transactions without additional user protections.
In January, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey reached a $1.9 million settlement with Bitcoin Depot to reimburse individuals who lost money to scams while using the company’s ATMs.
Last year, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird launched a lawsuit against both Bitcoin Depot and its rival Coinflip, alleging the operators failed to implement adequate protections to prevent scams.
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Mastercard is hiring a Director of Crypto Flows to lead stablecoin-linked card issuance, scale DeFi payment flows, and rewrite network rules for Web3 transactions.
The job posting, first surfaced by crypto journalist Frank Chaparro on Feb. 24, signals a structural push beyond the pilot-stage experiments the payments giant has run so far.
The Timing That Writes Itself
Days earlier, Citrini Research published “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis,” a doomsday scenario that rapidly went viral on Substack. The report maps a chain reaction in which AI agents progressively dismantle fee-based intermediaries — and payment networks sit squarely in the blast radius. Citrini specifically names Mastercard’s Q1 2027 earnings as a potential inflection point, the moment when agentic commerce begins routing around card interchange via stablecoins.
The logic is straightforward. When AI agents transact on behalf of consumers, a 2-3% card interchange fee becomes an irrational cost. Stablecoin rails settle the same transaction for near zero. In that world, Mastercard doesn’t lose to a competitor. It loses to a protocol.
The gap Mastercard needs to close
The vulnerability is not hypothetical. Stablecoins transferred $18.4 trillion in value in 2024, surpassing both Visa ($15.7 trillion) and Mastercard ($9.8 trillion) in raw volume, according to Artemis Analytics. The comparison is imperfect — much of that is trading, not payments — but the directional signal is clear.
Mastercard’s own CEO, Michael Miebach, told analysts in January that the company is “leaning in” to stablecoins and agentic commerce, calling the latter a trend in which “the train is leaving the station.” Yet he framed stablecoins as “another currency we can support within our network.”
That framing is precisely what Citrini challenges. The doomsday thesis is not that stablecoins replace card payments at today’s checkout counter. It is that a new category of commerce — machine-to-machine, micropayment-dense, 24/7 — will emerge entirely outside the card network’s design envelope.
Building rails or getting routed around
The new role suggests Mastercard is beginning to internalize this risk. Mastercard has laid the groundwork: onboarding multiple stablecoins onto its network in June 2025, expanding Circle’s USDC settlement across the Middle East and Africa, and reportedly pursuing a $2 billion acquisition of crypto infrastructure startup zerohash.
But the gap with Visa persists. Visa’s on-chain stablecoin settlement reached an annual run rate of $3.5 billion by late 2025. Crypto-native issuers like Rain and Reap built their card programs primarily on Visa rails, with Rain scaling to over $3 billion annualized after securing direct Visa membership. Industry analysis suggests Visa’s early crypto-native alignment translated into share, while Mastercard’s exchange-focused approach generated less volume.
Coincidence or confirmation
Regardless of whether Mastercard’s hiring push was triggered by Citrini’s report, the more important reading is that the diagnosis is converging. A research outfit writing from 2028 and a payments giant hiring in 2026 point at the same fault line. Card networks that cannot accommodate stablecoin-native commerce will be bypassed, not disrupted.
The canary, as Citrini wrote, is still alive. The question is whether Mastercard is building a bridge to close the gap—or just hiring someone to watch it widen.
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1816.14, down 2.0% (-36.33) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
One of the 20 assets is trading higher.
Leaders: ICP (+1.2%) and NEAR (-0.3%).
Laggards: BCH (-4.2%) and SUI (-2.5%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking a portion of its treasury holdings, marking a significant shift in how the organization manages its ETH reserves.
Summary
- The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking its treasury, starting with a 2,016 ETH deposit and planning to stake approximately 70,000 ETH in total.
- Staking rewards will be directed back to the foundation’s treasury to help fund core operations, including protocol R&D, ecosystem grants and community development.
- The validator setup uses open-source tools from Attestant, including Dirk and Vouch, with a focus on distributed signing, minority clients and multi-jurisdiction infrastructure.
Ethereum Foundation puts treasury to work with 70K ETH staking plan
In a post on X, the foundation said it has made an initial deposit of 2,016 Ethereum (ETH) and plans to stake approximately 70,000 ETH in total, with staking rewards directed back into its treasury. The move follows a Treasury Policy announced last year and is designed to both support network security and help fund the foundation’s core operations.
The staking setup is being implemented using open-source tools developed by Attestant, including Dirk and Vouch.
Dirk functions as a distributed signer, allowing validators to be operated across multiple jurisdictions and reducing the risk of a single point of failure.
Vouch enables the use of multiple consensus and execution client pairings, helping mitigate client diversity risks, a key concern for Ethereum’s decentralization model. The foundation said its validator setup incorporates minority clients and a mix of hosted infrastructure and self-managed hardware spread across several regions.
The announcement comes at a notable moment for Ethereum. Recently co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold roughly $7 million worth of ETH amid a broader price pullback, sparking discussion about treasury management and market signals.
At the same time, the foundation has been expanding ecosystem support through new grant initiatives, including updates to its Ecosystem Support Program aimed at funding protocol research, community development and public goods projects.
By staking a portion of its holdings, the foundation is effectively putting dormant ETH to work, generating yield while reinforcing validator participation. The move aligns the treasury more closely with Ethereum’s proof-of-stake design and provides an additional funding stream for long-term development efforts without relying solely on asset sales.
Payment processing firm Stripe is reportedly considering an acquisition of all or parts of its rival PayPal Holdings.
Stripe is in early talks and has expressed preliminary interest in PayPal or parts of its business, though no deal is guaranteed, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
It comes as Stripe, which enables enterprises to accept payments, make payouts, and automate financial processes, said on Tuesday that it was valued at $159 billion in a tender offer to shareholders and employees, a 74% jump from a year ago.
The move comes as PayPal has been reportedly struggling to compete with the likes of Google Pay and Apple Pay, which are embedded in consumer smartphones.
Stripe president John Collison told Bloomberg that “PayPal has had, obviously, a tough time over the past few years, and the landscape has changed quite a bit with Apple Pay and Google Pay and everything like that.”
“I can’t talk about any, you know, M&A [mergers and acquisitions] hypotheticals, but they’ve definitely had a tough time,” he added.
PayPal stock gains on the day
PayPal is also in leadership transition, with new CEO Enrique Lores set to take over on March 1 following the ouster of Alex Chriss, amid missed earnings estimates and slowing payment volumes.
Related: PayPal draws takeover interest following 46% stock slide: Report
PayPal stock (PYPL) gained 6.74% on Tuesday to end the day trading at $47.02, according to Google Finance. However, shares in the payments platform have declined almost 20% since the beginning of this year and are down 85% from their 2021 all-time high of just over $300.
PayPal, Stripe have serious stablecoin ambitions
PayPal began offering crypto trading in the US in 2020 and launched its own stablecoin PYUSD in 2023. The dollar-pegged asset has gained traction in recent months with its market capitalization topping $4 billion for the first time on Feb. 14.
Stripe has also been dabbling in crypto with its stablecoin platform Bridge, which received conditional approval to operate as a federally chartered national trust bank under the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Feb. 17.
Stripe first offered stablecoin-based accounts globally in May 2025. A merger could see the new entity become a serious player in the stablecoin market.
Magazine: Bitdeer sells all Bitcoin, Metaplanet rejects misconduct claims: Asia Express
Bitcoin fell below 200-week EMA, over 52% off peak, risking death-cross capitulation.
Summary
- BTC closed last week under the 200-week EMA, a key confluence zone tied to post-halving re-accumulation range highs, after three weeks of elevated sell volume and weak demand.
- Analysts warn BTC may retest the underside of the 200-week EMA as new resistance, echoing 2018 and 2022 structures that triggered a second bearish acceleration wave.
- BTC has dropped over 52% from its October top and approaches a 3-day 50/200 SMA death cross by late February, historically followed by an additional 45%-52% drawdown.
Bitcoin (BTC) closed the week below a critical support level, falling beneath that threshold for the first time since early February and reaching a two-week low, according to market data. Analysts have warned that the cryptocurrency could face additional downward pressure.
Analyst Rekt Capital stated that Bitcoin closed last week below the 200-week Exponential Moving Average (EMA), which sits at the center of a major confluence zone. The 200-week EMA aligns with the Post-Halving Re-accumulation Range highs, while the Post-Halving Re-accumulation Range lows define the broader structure of Bitcoin’s current range, according to the analyst.
Over the past three weeks, the cryptocurrency attempted to develop a demand region around this area, which was previously a major supply area, Rekt Capital noted. The analyst stated that this level has not historically been a structurally reliable support, noting that it previously acted as a 10-month resistance.
“In the current structure, we have seen three consecutive weeks of elevated sell-side volume in this region, with limited meaningful buy-side response,” the analyst stated in a post. The imbalance led to a weekly close below the 200-week EMA, losing it as support in this timeframe, according to the analysis.
Rekt Capital stated that there is a strong probability that Bitcoin will press back toward the underside of that EMA to attempt turning it into new resistance. If the underside retest holds, the structure would shift from defending the support to confirming the resistance at this level, the analyst said. The analyst added that if that level begins to act as resistance, downside continuation will become increasingly probable.
The analyst also noted that Bitcoin’s recent performance aligns closely with its price action in prior cycles. In 2018 and 2022, a weekly close below the 200-week EMA acted as a structural trigger to the second wave of bearish acceleration, according to the analysis. “Bitcoin would attempt to reclaim the level, turn it into resistance, and then dissipate lower. That pattern is now attempting to replicate itself,” Rekt Capital stated.
Analyst Ali Martinez pointed to the cryptocurrency’s historical performance on the three-day chart, stating that this has been one of Bitcoin’s key timeframes from a macro perspective. Martinez said market observers must watch the upcoming interaction of the 50-day and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMAs), as the crossover between these two indicators on the three-day timeframe has historically preceded the final leg down of the bear market.
Bitcoin dropped approximately 50% to 72% from its cycle tops in past cycles before death crosses took place in subsequent years, according to historical data. Following those SMA crossovers, the cryptocurrency experienced another 45% to 52% decline, Martinez noted. Bitcoin has fallen more than 52% from its October peak and is approaching a potential death cross on the three-day chart by the end of February, according to the analyst.
“If history repeats — even partially — this could signal the beginning of the final leg down of this cycle,” Martinez stated. The analyst predicted that another substantial correction from current levels could follow, placing the cryptocurrency’s target near lower support levels. “If the cross confirms, it becomes a level to take very seriously,” Martinez said.
Fleetwood shares down following half-year update
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