A stablecoin promises to hold a fixed $1 value, but STRC never made that promise. It is a preferred stock, a class of equity that pays a set dividend, engineered to trade near $100 but with no peg to defend, so it cannot “depeg” the way UST did.

“Strategy’s objective has been to support STRC’s trading at a level near $100, not to guarantee it,” Palmer said. “In our view, what has happened with STRC is best described not as a depeg — something that was never pegged cannot be depegged — but as a market-driven reset of required yield.”

UST was algorithmic, holding its dollar value through a mint-and-burn loop with a sister token, LUNA, and no hard reserves behind it. When confidence broke, the loop unwound and both fell to near zero.

STRC has no such self-reinforcing mechanism. It is backed indirectly by Strategy’s bitcoin, which the company said Monday now totals 847,363 coins worth about $54.5 billion.

The drop does affect Strategy’s buying engine, however. When STRC trades at or above $100, the company issues new shares and uses the cash to buy more bitcoin.

Below that level the channel stops working – explaining why Strategy has paused it.

CBOE has begun evaluating a conversion of its Bitcoin and Ether futures into perpetual contracts after crypto perpetuals generated more than $8.5 billion in trading volume on Kalshi within weeks of launch.

According to a June 23 report from The Wall Street Journal, CBOE Global Markets is considering turning its continuous Bitcoin and Ether futures into perpetual futures following recent regulatory developments in the United States.

The report cited Rob Hocking, CBOE’s global head of derivatives, who said the exchange is exploring the possibility after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved cryptocurrency perpetual futures for prediction market operator Kalshi.

While Hocking did not provide a timeline for any changes, the comments place one of the largest U.S. exchange operators among a growing list of firms responding to fresh competition in the perpetual futures market.

CBOE introduced its continuous Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts in December, offering products with expirations extending as far as 10 years.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the exchange is now studying whether perpetual contracts could provide an alternative structure following the CFTC’s decision to permit similar products on regulated U.S. venues.

Kalshi’s rapid growth has drawn attention from incumbent exchanges

Trading activity has accelerated quickly since Kalshi entered the market. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kalshi’s cryptocurrency perpetual futures have recorded more than $8.5 billion in volume within weeks of becoming available.

The CFTC’s approval has not been welcomed by all established exchanges. Earlier this month, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange filed a lawsuit against the regulator, arguing that the decision allowing Kalshi to list perpetual futures violates federal law. CME claimed the approval caused “textbook competitive injury” to incumbent futures exchanges.

The dispute highlights the growing importance of perpetual futures, a product that has become the dominant form of crypto derivatives trading since being popularized by BitMEX. Unlike traditional futures contracts, perpetuals do not expire and instead use periodic funding payments to keep contract prices aligned with the underlying asset.

Perpetual futures activity continues to expand across crypto markets

Outside traditional exchange operators, trading firms and crypto platforms continue adding new perpetual products.

Earlier this month, Coinbase launched perpetual futures linked to stock indexes, giving eligible U.S. traders leveraged exposure to sectors including artificial intelligence, defense, and Chinese equities. The rollout followed Coinbase International Exchange’s March launch of round-the-clock futures tied to U.S.-listed stocks for eligible traders outside the U.S.

Commodity-linked perpetual products are also gaining traction. BitMEX recently pointed to rising interest in commodity perpetual swaps as volatility in oil and gold markets increased.

Decentralized trading venues have become another major center for perpetual futures activity. According to data from DeFiLlama, decentralized exchanges processed more than $22.5 billion in perpetual futures volume during the past 24 hours and approximately $663 billion over the previous 30 days. DeFiLlama data showed that Hyperliquid accounted for most of that activity.

With regulated U.S. exchanges now receiving a pathway to offer perpetual futures, competition between traditional futures operators, crypto-native platforms, and decentralized venues is intensifying as firms move to capture trading activity that has historically been concentrated outside the U.S.

The $1.7 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton is establishing a new dedicated active crypto investment management arm through acquisition of 250 Digital.

Franklin Templeton has established Franklin Crypto to offer institutional investors actively managed cryptocurrency strategies the asset manager said in a statement.

The San Mateo, California-based asset manager first announced the acquisition and the new crypto division in April as part of its increasing push into digital assets. It has not disclosed financial terms of the deal

The new division will combine the investment capabilities of the former 250 Digital team with Franklin Templeton’s global distribution. Franklin Templeton will also invest its own capital into these liquid strategies as part of the closing agreement.

The new unit absorbs the entire 250 Digital investment team, alongside all liquid cryptocurrency strategies they previously ran under CoinFund, according to the statement.

Crypto industry veterans Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns will co-lead the new division. Perkins will serve as Head of Franklin Crypto and Chief Investment Officer respectively.

Read More: Franklin Templeton proposes new ETFs that turn corporate dividends into bitcoin

CFTC Chair Michael Selig has defended crypto perpetual futures while stressing they are not suitable for agricultural markets, as regulated crypto perps continue expanding across U.S. venues.

According to remarks delivered by Selig at the American Cotton Shippers Association Annual Convention on Tuesday, the CFTC recognizes that 24/7 trading and perpetual futures structures are not well suited to traditional agricultural markets that depend on physical delivery and operate during limited trading hours.

Drawing a contrast between the agency’s historic role overseeing products ranging from corn to livestock and its newer responsibilities involving digital assets, Selig said perpetual contracts tied to cryptocurrencies are not appropriate for every asset class, particularly in agriculture.

While emphasizing those differences, Selig’s comments come only weeks after the CFTC approved Bitcoin perpetual futures contracts for prediction market platform Kalshi and issued a no-action position allowing similar products on Coinbase. Following those developments, crypto exchange Kraken also launched perpetual futures trading for U.S. customers through its CFTC-regulated platform Bitnomial.

Crypto perpetuals remain under regulatory review

Alongside the emergence of regulated crypto perpetuals, the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened a joint public consultation seeking feedback on how U.S. regulations classify swaps, security-based swaps, mixed swaps, and related derivatives products.

As reported by crypto.news, the agencies said financial markets and trading practices have evolved since the original implementation of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, prompting a review of whether current definitions still align with modern products. Comments will remain open for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

According to the agencies, the request covers jurisdictional questions, swap exclusions, alternative compliance frameworks, mixed swaps, and newly developed financial products. The review also includes event contracts and prediction market products that increasingly sit at the intersection of commodities and securities regulation.

Addressing the initiative, Selig said the consultation could help resolve what he described as longstanding ambiguities within Dodd-Frank. SEC Chair Paul Atkins separately stated that additional regulatory clarity is overdue, including for event-based products.

A key issue emerging from the review involves crypto perpetual futures, which differ from traditional futures contracts because they have no expiration date. As crypto.news previously reported, Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures were permitted to remain listed under existing futures rules, subject to compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

If regulators eventually classify crypto perpetuals as swaps rather than futures, platforms offering the products could face different requirements covering execution, reporting, clearing, and regulatory oversight.

Traditional exchanges are taking notice

Growing interest in regulated crypto perpetuals has also attracted attention from established exchange operators.

According to additional reporting, CBOE has begun evaluating whether its Bitcoin and Ether futures products could be converted into perpetual contracts after crypto perpetuals generated more than $8.5 billion in trading volume on Kalshi within weeks of launch.

At the same time, Selig’s handling of prediction markets and crypto perpetual approvals continues to face legal scrutiny. Last week, CME Group filed a lawsuit against the CFTC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the agency’s approvals violated the Commodity Exchange Act.

Further uncertainty surrounds the agency itself. Despite calls from lawmakers to fill vacant seats, President Donald Trump has not appointed additional commissioners, leaving Selig as the CFTC’s sole commissioner and chair following Caroline Pham’s departure in December 2025.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is expected to consider the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the coming weeks. According to lawmakers and industry participants, the legislation could redefine how regulatory responsibilities are divided between the CFTC and SEC for digital asset markets.

“Strengthening the resilience of payments in Europe has become a geopolitical necessity,” Markus Ferber, a leading member of the ECON committee said on Tuesday.

“In a world marked by geopolitical tensions, we can no longer accept that digital payments are largely dependent on the goodwill of a few foreign providers,” he added, echoing concerns expressed across the EU.

The new rules voted by the ECON Committee cleared the way for the ECB to introduce both online and offline versions of the currency by 2029. Crucially, the offline version will allow users to swap digital euros directly from phone to phone without an internet connection, guaranteeing cash-like privacy that prevents the ECB from seeing what citizens are buying.

The EU’s central bank digital euro approval comes just hours after U.S. Senate voted to place a four-year ban on a CBDC. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives. If they follow suit it then goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Commercial banks successfully lobbied for strict holding limits on how much a citizen can keep in a digital wallet to avoid a mass exodus of cash from traditional accounts during a crisis.

The ECB will now undertake a 12-month pilot phase using a beta version to test the infrastructure in real-world scenarios with select merchants and payment service providers.