Crypto World
Spot Bitcoin ETF AUM Hits Lowest Level Since April 2025
Assets in spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs slipped below $100 billion on Tuesday following a fresh $272 million in outflows.
According to data from SoSoValue, the move marked the first time spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management have fallen below that level since April 2025, after peaking at about $168 billion in October
The drop came amid a broader crypto market sell-off, with Bitcoin sliding below $74,000 on Tuesday. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell from $3.11 trillion to $2.64 trillion over the past week, according to CoinGecko.
Altcoin funds secure modest inflows
The latest outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs followed a brief rebound in flows on Monday, when the products attracted $562 million in net inflows.
Still, Bitcoin funds resumed losses on Tuesday, pushing year-to-date outflows to almost $1.3 billion, coming in line with ongoing market volatility.
By contrast, ETFs tracking altcoins such as Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) recorded modest inflows of $14 million, $19.6 million and $1.2 million, respectively.
Is institutional adoption moving beyond ETFs?
The ongoing sell-off in Bitcoin ETFs comes as BTC trades below the ETF creation cost basis of $84,000, suggesting new ETF shares are being issued at a loss and placing pressure on fund flows.
Market observers say that the slump is unlikely to trigger further mass sell-offs in ETFs.
“My guess is vast majority of assets in spot BTC ETFs stay put regardless,” ETF analyst Nate Geraci wrote on X on Monday.
Thomas Restout, CEO of institutional liquidity provider B2C2, echoed the sentiment, noting that institutional ETF investors are generally resilient. Still, he hinted that a shift toward onchain trading may be underway.
Related: VistaShares launches Treasury ETF with options-based Bitcoin exposure
“The benefit of institutions coming in and buying ETFs is they’re far more resilient. They will sit on their views and positions for longer,” Restout said in a Rulematch Spot On podcast on Monday.
“I think the next level of transformation is institutions actually trading crypto, rather than just using securitized ETFs. We’re expecting the next wave of institutions to be the ones trading the underlying assets directly,” he noted.
Magazine: DAT panic dumps 73,000 ETH, India’s crypto tax stays: Asia Express
RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments platform, says it has consolidated its teams to improve efficiency as it scales, following market chatter about executive turnover and sensitivities tied to its ties with mainland China. A Bloomberg report on March 18, 2026, flagged at least five senior departures in the past year, including two heads of compliance, amid a demanding work culture and marathon hours. The company has been pursuing a US initial public offering that could exceed $1 billion in proceeds and values the firm at over $4 billion, according to Bloomberg. RedotPay publicly framed the moves as part of transitioning from an early-stage startup to a unicorn, while insisting its leadership core remains intact.
Key takeaways
- RedotPay is reorganizing its organizational structure and talent pool to support continued growth and an anticipated scale-up toward a potential IPO, signaling prioritization of governance and operational efficiency.
- Bloomberg reported significant leadership churn over the past year, including multiple senior departures, with the report noting a demanding culture and long working hours tied to rapid expansion.
- The company continues to pursue a U.S. listing, with reports suggesting a deal could raise more than $1 billion and value the company above $4 billion, backed by banks named by sources as advisers.
- RedotPay says it has not yet appointed a chief financial officer, and its co-founders still oversee core functions as the company grows to more than 250 employees globally, anchored in Hong Kong.
- Despite heavy fundraising in 2025, RedotPay asserts no urgent need for additional capital, citing strong cash flow and liquidity while remaining open to investor participation.
Sentiment: Neutral
Market context: The story unfolds as stablecoins and crypto-enabled payments continue to attract capital and regulatory attention. The market cap of stablecoins has risen above $300 billion, reflecting expanding use cases in everyday transactions and remittances. Within this backdrop, major banks and advisory firms have been linked to potential crypto-related listings, including a hypothetical U.S. IPO for RedotPay that could involve banks such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies.
Why it matters
RedotPay’s pivot from an early-stage startup toward what some sources describe as unicorn status underscores the broader tension between rapid scale and governance in the fast-growing stablecoin payments space. A successful US listing would place the company among a cohort of crypto-native firms seeking mainstream access to capital, potentially validating a model that blends card-based spending with yield-generating stablecoins and cross-border remittances. The involvement of established banks as advisers—if confirmed—could lend credibility to a sector that has faced intense regulatory scrutiny in recent years, particularly around stablecoins’ reserve structures and cross-border settlement capabilities.
From a governance perspective, the reported leadership churn raises questions about talent retention and organizational culture at scale. Five senior departures within a year—per the Bloomberg report—include two compliance chiefs, highlighting the delicate balance between rapid deployment of new products and rigorous compliance controls. RedotPay’s response emphasizes ongoing leadership by its co-founders and a strategic restructuring intended to support growth while preserving core leadership responsibilities. In a market where investor confidence often hinges on governance transparency, how the company manages talent and internal controls may influence investor appetite for a potential IPO.
On the funding front, the company has demonstrated a capacity to sustain growth through multiple rounds of financing. The 2025 fundraising wave totaled $194 million across three rounds, beginning with a $40 million Series A in March led by Lightspeed, followed by a $47 million strategic round in September that brought in Coinbase Ventures and helped push the company toward unicorn status, and culminating in a $107 million Series B in December led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital and Circle Ventures. RedotPay states that its current operating cash flow remains robust and that liquidity is ample, which it says dampens the urgency for additional fundraising, even as it remains open to investor interest. The financing momentum a year ago signals strong market appetite for well-capitalized fintechs operating in the crypto payments space, even as the sector navigates a complex regulatory environment.
The market backdrop for stablecoins—central to RedotPay’s value proposition—adds another layer of significance. The DefiLlama data embedded in industry discourse shows a stablecoin market that has surpassed a substantial value threshold, underscoring the demand for programmable money that can underpin everyday transactions. As more users seek frictionless ways to spend and transfer value across borders, platforms that can demonstrate sustainable growth, resilient liquidity, and credible risk management are likely to command heightened investor attention. In this context, RedotPay’s stated roadmap toward an IPO and its organizational evolution will be watched closely by investors seeking to gauge how well the company translates a disruptive business model into long-term financial and governance discipline.
Beyond the immediate corporate drama and fundraising cadence, the company’s plan to scale operations—anchored by a global workforce of more than 250 employees and a growing footprint in Hong Kong—will be a litmus test for how crypto-enabled payments platforms balance rapid expansion with regulatory compliance, particularly in a climate of heightened scrutiny toward cross-border crypto activity. If RedotPay can demonstrate consistent cash flow generation, robust internal controls, and a credible pathway to public markets, it could become a reference point for other issuers pursuing US-listed exits from the Asia-Pacific stablecoin and payments ecosystems. Conversely, persistent leadership instability or material regulatory challenges could complicate its IPO trajectory, even amid strong market demand for crypto-enabled payments solutions.
The company’s public statements emphasize that the leadership remains intact and that the organizational shifts are deliberate steps in a broader growth strategy. As market participants parse the evolving narrative, the balance between ambition and governance will be the defining factor shaping RedotPay’s reception among investors and potential partners on the path to a public listing.
What to watch next
- Whether RedotPay appoints a chief financial officer and when that appointment would occur.
- Updates on the U.S. IPO timeline, including any formal filings or regulatory milestones in 2026.
- Any further disclosures about leadership changes or organizational restructuring and their rationale.
- Additional fundraising activity or investor commitments beyond the 2025 momentum.
- Regulatory developments affecting cross-border crypto payments and stablecoins that could impact the listing process.
Sources & verification
RedotPay navigates expansion amid churn rumors as it eyes a US IPO
RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments platform, has told investors it is consolidating its teams to bolster efficiency as it scales, a move that follows a February-March wave of press coverage about leadership churn and sensitivities linked to the company’s China connections. The company’s public communications frame the organizational changes as a natural part of maturing from an early-stage startup into a unicorn while preserving the leadership of its co-founders, including CEO Michael Gao, who remain at the helm of critical functions. This narrative aligns with a broader push in the crypto payments space to translate rapid growth into governance discipline, a prerequisite for any public market ambitions.
According to Bloomberg’s March 18 report, at least five senior hires departed RedotPay within the last year, including two roles in compliance. The account of churn highlights the strains that can accompany aggressive scaling, particularly in an industry sensitive to regulatory scrutiny and mainland China associations. RedotPay’s rebuttal stresses that the departures are part of a broader organizational evolution designed to support ongoing growth while the core leadership team continues to guide the business through its next phase.
Turning to the potential IPO, Bloomberg noted that a US listing could exceed $1 billion in proceeds and value the company at more than $4 billion. The report cited the involvement of established banks—JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Jefferies—as advisers on a potential New York listing that could come as early as this year. RedotPay did not confirm these details in a standalone interview with Cointelegraph, but its public statements reiterate a message of strategic transition aimed at sustaining growth and expanding its geographic reach and product capabilities. The claim of an IPO pathway underscores how market signals about public-market readiness remain intertwined with perceptions of governance and execution risk in a high-growth crypto fintech.
On the financial front, RedotPay has demonstrated fundraising resilience. The company disclosed that it raised a total of $194 million in 2025, delivering a sequence of rounds that fortified its balance sheet and expanded its global footprint. The March 2025 Series A of $40 million, led by Lightspeed, established a foundation for subsequent rounds. In September, a $47 million strategic round brought in Coinbase Ventures and helped cement unicorn status, while December’s $107 million Series B, led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital, and Circle Ventures, extended its capital runway. RedotPay has positioned itself as a payments-enabled platform that allows users to spend stablecoins through a Visa-enabled card, while offering yield products and remittance services, which adds a revenue diversification angle beyond pure exchange or fee-based models.
Despite this fundraising cadence, RedotPay says there is no urgency to secure additional capital, pointing to strong cash flow and liquidity. It notes ongoing openness to investor dialogue but emphasizes that management will prioritize organic growth and profitability where possible. The company’s stance highlights a broader debate in the crypto-fintech space: how growth-stage firms balance ambitious capital-intensive expansion with disciplined capital management and a clear path to profitability, particularly when courting public-market investors. In RedotPay’s case, the question now shifts from fundraising momentum to execution credibility—can the platform translate its growth story into consistent earnings, a robust governance framework, and a credible, timely IPO plan within a still-evolving regulatory landscape?
Market dynamics surrounding stablecoins—an essential pillar of RedotPay’s business—also influence how the market will interpret its next moves. The sector’s scale, underscored by a market cap that has surpassed notable thresholds in recent months, suggests a durable demand for crypto-enabled payments and cross-border financial flows. That demand is tempered by regulatory expectations and the need for transparent reserve practices, especially as more institutional capital seeks exposure to tokenized cash equivalents and on-chain settlement capabilities. RedotPay’s ability to articulate a clear governance and risk framework, alongside a credible IPO timeline, will be a critical test for the company and for investors evaluating the viability of stablecoin-centric fintechs in the public market arena.
Key Takeaways
- DocuSign’s price target reduced to $86 from $124 by Citizens, which maintains Market Outperform rating amid revenue growth worries
- Wells Fargo lowered its price target from $75 to $60 while keeping Equal Weight rating
- Shares have plummeted 44% in the last half-year, trading near $47.54
- Fourth quarter FY2026 earnings per share reached $1.01 versus $0.95 consensus; revenue of $837M exceeded $827.9M expectations
- IAM platform generated $350M in Q4 (representing 11% of total revenue), with projections targeting $600M (18% of total) by FY2027 conclusion
The past half-year has proven challenging for DocuSign, prompting Wall Street analysts to recalibrate their forecasts. This week witnessed two prominent investment firms reducing their stock price projections — including one particularly significant cut.
Citizens slashed its projection from $124 down to $86, representing a substantial 31% decrease, while maintaining its Market Outperform stance. The firm highlighted worries surrounding revenue acceleration as the primary catalyst for this adjustment.
Currently hovering around $47.54, the stock trades significantly beneath even these reduced projections — reflecting a 44% decline over the preceding six-month period. This represents a considerable valuation compression for an enterprise that continues delivering 79.5% gross margins while maintaining a cash position exceeding its debt load.
Wells Fargo adopted a less aggressive revision, lowering its target from $75 down to $60 while preserving an Equal Weight designation. The firm characterized Q4 performance as generally aligned with expectations, albeit “a touch below” the magnitude of previous quarterly surprises.
Wells highlighted that elevated R&D spending will probably constrain margin improvement in upcoming quarters. Additional disclosure changes introduced by the company necessitate recalibration of analyst forecasting models.
Fourth Quarter Performance Surpasses Forecasts
Notwithstanding the pessimistic target revisions, DocuSign’s fourth quarter FY2026 performance proved respectable. Earnings per share registered at $1.01, surpassing the $0.95 analyst consensus. Quarterly revenue totaled $837 million, modestly exceeding the $827.9 million projection.
The positive earnings surprise failed to alleviate anxieties regarding future growth momentum, which remains the fundamental concern underpinning the target reductions.
IAM Platform Growth and Artificial Intelligence Advances
Optimistic investors are concentrating on the company’s IAM offering, which generated $350 million during Q4, accounting for 11% of aggregate revenue. Management has provided guidance projecting this figure to reach $600 million, representing 18% of total revenue, by fiscal year 2027’s conclusion.
The organization is transitioning toward consumption-based subscription models beginning in the first quarter.
Regarding artificial intelligence development, the company’s Iris engine now processes over 200 million privately consented agreements through Navigator, advancing from 150 million in December. Management claims achieving AI processing cost reductions up to 50 times compared with executing direct prompts on large language models.
DocuSign addresses a $50 billion total addressable market opportunity, equally distributed between electronic signature and contract lifecycle management segments, serving 1.8 million customers throughout its ecosystem.
Wells Fargo observed that updated ARR guidance projects approximately 50 basis points of growth acceleration entering FY2027.
The post DocuSign (DOCU) Stock Sees Analyst Price Targets Slashed Following Q4 Results appeared first on Blockonomi.
Kraken Pro has rolled out its largest single margin leverage expansion, adding support across 44 trading pairs including stablecoins, gold tokens, BTC and ETH regional pairs, mid-cap assets, and DeFi blue-chips.
Kraken Pro has expanded margin leverage across 44 trading pairs, marking the exchange’s largest single leverage expansion to date. The expansion spans four distinct asset categories: stablecoins, gold tokens, BTC and ETH regional pairs, mid-cap assets, and DeFi blue-chips. The rollout is designed to allow traders to size positions that better reflect their conviction without hitting leverage limits.
The expansion builds on Kraken’s recent push to grow its margin trading offerings. The exchange previously increased collateral currency options and added new margin pairs including MON and NIGHT, bringing the total number of available margin markets to over 240. The latest expansion reinforces Kraken Pro’s positioning as a platform for advanced traders seeking deeper leverage access across multiple asset classes.
Sources: Kraken Blog | Kraken Pro
This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.
Crypto World
BNB Chain Launches BNBAgent SDK, the First Live Implementation of ERC-8183 for Trustless Onchain AI Agents
[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, March 18th, 2026]
BNB Chain today announced the launch of BNBAgent SDK, the first live implementation of ERC-8183 and a complete developer framework enabling trustless onchain AI workflows. The release represents a major step forward in building the infrastructure needed for autonomous agents to operate at scale, with verifiable workflows, trustless settlement, and decentralized dispute resolution built in.
As AI agents move beyond experimentation into workflows where tangible value is involved, capability alone is insufficient. A key consideration is trust—specifically, the ability to verify results, resolve disputes, and settle payments in a reliable manner without dependence on centralized platforms.
The SDK provides:
- Onchain identity and reputation, built on ERC-8004 Every agent registered through the SDK gets a persistent onchain identity tied to ERC-8004, with a verifiable record of activity and outcomes that builds over time. Rather than being deployed in isolation, agents become discoverable participants that applications and users can evaluate and trust based on their actual track record.
- A standardized job lifecycle, no custom escrow required ERC-8183 establishes a shared protocol covering task creation, funding, execution, and settlement. The SDK puts that protocol directly in developers’ hands, so teams can integrate agent workflows without rebuilding contract logic for every new use case.
- Dispute resolution via UMA’s Optimistic Oracle When agent outputs go unchallenged, jobs settle quickly. When they are disputed, the SDK routes resolution through UMA’s Data Verification Mechanism, where token holders weigh in on the outcome. The process is transparent, decentralized, and doesn’t require either party to trust a third-party intermediary.
- A Python toolkit built for real workflows The SDK packages all of this into a Python developer toolkit with encrypted keystore support included by default. Developers interact with ERC-8183 using familiar patterns rather than writing low-level contract logic, and the architecture is designed to stay flexible as wallet systems and verification models continue to develop.
The code will be released publicly in the coming week, with mainnet to follow. For more information, users can visit the blog HERE.
About BNB Chain
BNB Chain is one of the largest and most active blockchain ecosystems in the world, supported by a global community of developers and users. With high throughput, low transaction costs, and full EVM compatibility, BNB Chain powers scalable applications across finance, gaming, and the broader Web3 economy. For more information, users can visit www.bnbchain.org.
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Crypto World
Ethereum’s Fast Confirmation Rule targets 13-second bridge times with 98% reduction: Ethereum Foundation
Ethereum’s proposed Fast Confirmation Rule aims to slash L1-to-L2 bridge and exchange deposit times from minutes to just 13 seconds without requiring a hard fork.
Ethereum is moving forward with a Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) designed to dramatically accelerate bridge times between Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions, as well as exchange deposits. The mechanism targets completion times of approximately 13 seconds—a reduction of 80–98% compared to current timelines—and achieves this without requiring a hard fork to the network.
The FCR leverages attestations rather than blocks to verify transactions, representing a shift in how Ethereum handles cross-layer confirmation speed. This proposal aligns with broader Ethereum roadmap efforts to reduce finality times and slot durations, part of a longer-term vision to make the network faster and more efficient for users and institutions.
Sources: Julian (@_julianma) on X | Binance Square
This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.
Trump continues to urge Powell to cut the rates, but it’s highly unlikely.
With just hours left until the US Federal Reserve publishes its decision whether it will change in any way the key interest rates, BTC’s price has dived by roughly two grand in minutes, dropping to a multi-day low of under $72,500.
This would be the second-to-last FOMC meeting before the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, leaves office as his four-year term expires on May 15.
FOMC Today: What to Expect
The general consensus among experts and prediction platforms is that there will be no changes to the interest rates today. According to most reports, Powell will likely keep them the same, as the war in the Middle East has only increased uncertainty, with gas prices jumping worldwide.
“Heading into the March [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting, the key question for the Fed is how to handle oil price shocks,” wrote Morgan Stanley economists in a recent note as cited by NBC News.
At the same time, economists at UBS reaffirmed the narrative that the Fed will not pivot on its most recent monetary policy. BeiChen Lin, a senior investment strategist at Russell Investments, also believes there won’t be any changes today, but noted that “any hints Chair Powell might drop about the path of future interest rates will be key.”
US President Trump continues to request that Powell cut the rates, which has brought him little to no success over the past several months. It appears he would have to wait for his nominee, Kevin Warsh, to replace Powell in mid-May.
As reported yesterday, the central banks for the UK and the European Union will also have such meetings in the near future, but the landscape in those jurisdictions is rather identical, as the market does not expect any changes.
Bitcoin Slips
Bitcoin became one of the top-performing assets since the war started on February 28, and jumped from a then-low of $63,000 to $76,000 marked yesterday morning. Although it was stopped there, it managed to hold above $74,000 until a few hours ago.
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That’s when it started to lose value rapidly, dropping by around two grand in 90-120 minutes. The asset has a long history of reacting with intense volatility to Powell’s speeches, and more fluctuations are expected today, even if the Fed indeed leaves the rates as they are.
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The SEC just gave crypto its biggest regulatory green light in years.
Chair Paul Atkins floated a safe harbor exemption on March 18 that lets crypto projects operate without immediate securities registration. It is a direct reversal of the regulation by enforcement era that suffocated US-based development for years.
Token projects now have a compliant runway to decentralize without the threat of an SEC lawsuit hanging over them. For altcoin valuations, that changes the math entirely.x
- Atkins identified four asset categories—digital commodities, collectibles, tools, and payment stablecoins—that are not subject to securities laws.
- The safe harbor proposal offers a specific grace period for projects to reach decentralization without facing enforcement actions.
- Formal rulemaking is expected within weeks to replace temporary staff guidance and solidify these protections.
The Safe Harbor Framework Explained
Atkins is cutting through a decade of deliberate ambiguity.
Speaking at a Digital Chamber event, he laid out a framework that separates capital raising from the underlying asset. Four categories are now explicitly excluded from securities jurisdiction. Digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and payment stablecoins.
— BSCN (@BSCNews) March 18, 2026
UPDATE: SEC CHAIR PROPOSES CRYPTO SAFE HARBOR FRAMEWORK
USE SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, has proposed a new regulatory safe harbor for crypto firms in the US.
The framework aims to ease pressure on early-stage projects. It would allow firms to raise capital with fewer… pic.twitter.com/NRTHMyAv0J
For everything that does not fit cleanly into those boxes yet, the safe harbor buys time. Instead of Wells Notices for technically failing the Howey Test during development, projects face purpose-fit disclosures and a transparent path toward decentralization. Build first. Comply as you go.
Custody rules are also getting overhauled. Broker-dealers will be able to hold both crypto assets and traditional securities simultaneously. The special purpose broker-dealer model that no compliant firm could actually use is effectively dead.
Atkins is trying to bring crypto trading back to national securities exchanges and stabilize a market that has been hammered by legal uncertainty for years. Assets like XRP have historically exploded the moment regulatory clouds clear.
Those clouds are clearing fast.
Market Implications for Issuers and Exchanges
The immediate winners are US-based token issuers and exchanges.
Coinbase has operated for years under the threat that any listing could trigger a lawsuit. A formal safe harbor removes that existential risk entirely. That clarity is the missing piece institutional product approvals have been waiting for.
The ETF race is the most direct beneficiary. Solana’s push for a spot ETF has faced headwinds specifically because the SEC previously labeled SOL a security. If SOL lands in the digital commodity or digital tool bucket under Atkins’ new classification, the path to approval gets significantly shorter overnight.
The broader impact is a sector-wide repricing. Token prices have been trading at a discount for years to account for enforcement risk. Remove that discount and valuations adjust upward across the board.
The cost of capital just dropped for the entire industry.
Discover: The best new crypto in the world
The post SEC Chair Paul Atkins Floats ‘Safe Harbor’ Exemptions for Crypto appeared first on Cryptonews.
Opinion by: Vikram Arun, co-founder and CEO of Superform
Crypto cards aren’t the future of payments. They’re a temporary interface for a world that hasn’t fully accepted cryptocurrencies.
They rely on banks as issuers, Visa or Mastercard as gatekeepers, and compliance rules that look exactly like TradFi.
In most cases, crypto is sold into idle USD, the assets stop earning and every swipe creates a taxable event.
That’s not innovation. That’s a debit card with extra steps.
As digital banks built with blockchain rails scale, crypto cards that behave like debit cards will become obsolete, replaced by systems that treat cards as a thin interface on top of robust onchain credit.
The problem with current crypto cards
To understand why this shift is necessary, consider what happens with current crypto cards. When systems force users to liquidate holdings to spend, they reinforce the paradigm crypto was meant to escape: the false choice between liquidity and ownership.
Debit-style crypto cards recreate this same trade-off because they require assets to become spendable balances, which halts yield and makes the system structurally negative-sum without subsidies.
The IRS treats converting cryptocurrency to fiat currency as a taxable disposal, meaning each coffee purchase triggers capital gains reporting and permanently removes assets from productive use. Card issuers typically earn 1% to 3%, plus a flat fee per transaction, from interchange fees. The infrastructure looks decentralized on the surface, but the dependencies run deep.
Onchain credit fixes these issues
Instead of selling assets to spend, onchain credit enables people to deposit yield-bearing assets, open a credit line and spend against it. When people swipe the card, their debt increases, but their assets keep earning. Nothing is sold unless the person fails to repay. If the position falls below governance-defined parameters, liquidation is deterministic and transparent. This shift toward wallet-native credit shows onchain credit moving from concept to practice.
In this model, spending doesn’t reduce ownership; it increases debt. Collateral continues to compound until the credit line is repaid or liquidated. There are no forced conversions and no idle balances. Yield-bearing stablecoins currently offer about 5% yield, and DeFi protocols range from 5% to 12%, depending on demand and token incentives.
Users holding these assets in credit accounts keep earning while maintaining spending power.
Any earning asset can be collateral
This shift from debit to credit fundamentally changes what’s possible. Once credit becomes the primary primitive, the question stops being “what can I spend?” and becomes “what can safely secure my credit?” Eligibility is no longer about whether an asset can be instantly liquidated into cash. It’s about whether it can be priced continuously, risk bounded and unwound deterministically.
This allows productive assets to compete for inclusion. Vault shares, yield-bearing dollars, US Treasury-backed assets and strategy positions are first-class collateral that don’t need to be converted into idle balances. These assets remain productive until liquidation becomes required. When assets keep earning, users don’t have to choose between liquidity and yield, credit lines become cheaper to maintain and protocols earn from management and performance, not interest spreads.
The card is just an interface
The card is not the product. A card is simply a consumer-facing compatibility layer, a thin authorization surface, and not the source of truth. What actually matters is the credit line itself: the ability to price a user’s onchain balance sheet and decide, in real time, whether a spend should be allowed.
Related: Visa crypto card spending soars 525 percent in 2025
Cards serve merchants and consumers. Once credit is the primitive, however, interfaces become interchangeable. Software and autonomous agents can already request payment programmatically. Whether through cards or APIs, the underlying question is the same: Is this spend authorized against the user’s credit?
If credit logic lives within the card, people remain locked into interchange fee structures, closed payment rails and rigid KYC requirements. If credit lives onchain, cards become optional. Collateral stays in user-controlled accounts, spending is authorized in real time and liquidation is deterministic.
Managing risk through transparency
Of course, this system raises questions about safety. The most immediate objection is volatility. If collateral can fluctuate in value, what protects people from being liquidated while they are buying groceries?
Governance sets conservative loan-to-value ratios in advance, ensuring users can only borrow against a fraction of their collateral. As collateral earns yield, this buffer grows automatically. Pricing happens continuously, not at arbitrary intervals, and liquidation triggers are transparent from the beginning.
Traditional credit obscures risk through adjustable interest rates, surprise fees and terms buried in legal documents. Onchain credit makes risk explicit. Governance-set parameters mean the community decides what’s acceptable, not a bank’s risk committee behind closed doors.
The path forward
The answer to managing this risk lies in how the system is governed. Governance controls which assets can be used as collateral, how they’re priced, acceptable risk levels and when liquidations occur. People opt in by depositing collateral, and from that point on, the protocol enforces the rules without blanket access to funds or quietly changed parameters.
Crypto cards will not disappear because they failed. They will disappear because they succeeded by bridging crypto into a world that still runs on legacy rails. As wallets improve and crypto-native payments become standard, spending won’t require banks, issuers or card networks at all. Interfaces will change. Payment rails will evolve. But onchain credit will remain: the ability to spend without selling, to keep assets productive and to enforce risk transparently.
Cards are an interface. Credit is the system.
Opinion by: Vikram Arun, co-founder and CEO of Superform.
This opinion article presents the author’s expert view, and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
Crypto World
Executive turnover clouds crypto payments firm RedotPay’s $4 billion U.S. IPO ambitions
RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments startup, is facing internal strain and executive turnover as it seeks up to $150 million in fresh funding and works toward a U.S. IPO that could value the company at more than $4 billion.
Those ambitions are being clouded by executive turnover. At least five senior hires left within 12 months, and the company is pursuing its listing plans without a chief financial officer. Staff, according to a Bloomberg report, have often been asked to work late for extended periods.
The fundraising talks come only months after RedotPay raised more than $150 million across two rounds in September and December. It remains open to strategic investors, but does not face pressure to raise funds because of strong cash flow, Bloomberg said.
The company has grown fast. Investor materials show annualized payment volume passed $10 billion in December, while revenue doubled to $158 million. RedotPay says it now serves more than 6 million users in over 100 countries.
Its main product is a stablecoin payments app linked to a Visa card. Users can store stablecoins in the app and spend them at merchants or online, while the platform also offers remittance services and yield on some holdings.
Quiet bitcoin price action in the $74,000 area was shattered Wednesday morning on reports of military escalation in Iran and then February inflation data that came in far stronger than expected.
The declines started as U.S. President Donald Trump struck a more aggressive tone on Iran, suggesting further escalation in a series of Truth Social posts and calling the country the “NUMBER ONE STATE SPONSOR OF TERROR.”
Alongside, Iran’s state TV reported that part of that country’s South Pars gas field was attacked.
This followed reports that Israel killed Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, while the U.S. deployed 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs targeting missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil flows.
That news combined to send the price of WTI crude oil from as low as $92 per barrel overnight to nearly $96.
Minutes later, the U.S. Producer Price Index for February rose 0.7% versus just 0.3% expected and up from January’s 0.5%. The core PPI rose 0.5% versus 0.3% expected, though down from January’s 0.8%. Importantly, the disturbing inflation data is from prior to the attacks against Iran and the subsequent sharp rise in the price of oil.
The data complicates the outlook for rate cuts, especially with oil prices still elevated, and is weighing on risk assets ahead of the U.S. stock market open.
Bitcoin has now fallen to $72,300, down 2% over the past 24 hours. Declines for ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) are closer to 3%. U.S. stock index futures have swung from solid gains to declines of about 0.4% across the board.
Fed comes later
Later in the day, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold rates steady, shifting the focus to Chair Jerome Powell’s messaging and how policymakers interpret the recent mix of growth risks and inflation pressures. Trump once again renewed calls for rate cuts in a Wednesday post, adding a political dimension to the meeting.
Special meeting to scrutinise council’s new Scarborough office plan
The Hershey Co. adds edible straw flavor
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