Executives from MoonPay, Ripple, and Paxos said at Consensus Miami 2026 that stablecoin regulation has accelerated institutional adoption but that major infrastructure and privacy gaps still block mainstream use.

Top executives at three of the most active stablecoin companies told the Consensus Miami 2026 audience on May 8 that new US regulation has fundamentally changed the competitive landscape for dollar-pegged tokens, bringing traditional financial institutions into a market that was previously difficult for them to enter. The shift, however, has exposed a new set of problems the industry has yet to solve.

Richard Harrison, MoonPay’s vice president of banking and payment partnerships, said the passage of the GENIUS Act gave firms across traditional finance a regulatory framework to operate within. “What GENIUS brought us was clarity,” Harrison told the panel, noting that traditional finance firms are now entering stablecoins at a faster pace because compliance is easier to evaluate.

Harrison compared the current state of stablecoin adoption to electric vehicles: the core product works, but mass-market take-up depends entirely on the supporting infrastructure. “How do you use stablecoin to pay your rent?” he said. “How do you use it to buy a cup of coffee?”

Institutional demand versus real-world usability

Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president for stablecoins, told the panel that institutional clients are focused less on market capitalisation and more on practical details: regulatory compliance, custody security, and whether stablecoins can do something useful beyond trading.

McDonald said Ripple continues to concentrate on treasury operations, collateral management, and cross-border payment settlement as the primary enterprise use cases, arguing that utility must drive adoption rather than speculative interest.

Harrison added that stablecoins currently represent a relatively small share of global remittance flows, though he projected the figure could reach around 10% of the market over the next five years as payment rails improve and more merchants integrate digital dollar services.

Stablecoin-based cross-border transfers already settle near-instantly at fees below one dollar, compared with traditional banking fees that can exceed 6%.

Brent Perrault, a senior staff software engineer at Paxos, said privacy remains the sector’s most persistent unresolved problem. Public blockchains expose transaction amounts and the flow of funds, which creates compliance and confidentiality concerns for businesses handling sensitive financial data.

Perrault warned that partial privacy solutions are insufficient because users inevitably move between private and public blockchain environments. He said competitive differentiation among stablecoin issuers is now increasingly driven by trust, distribution partnerships, and user incentives rather than technical specification alone.

Distribution gaps and what comes next

Perrault pointed to PayPal USD’s growth and Charles Schwab’s use of Paxos infrastructure as evidence that demand from established financial institutions is real and expanding beyond crypto-native firms.

The challenge, he said, is that even well-capitalised issuers with strong compliance records face significant friction when trying to connect stablecoin rails to the everyday payment systems consumers and businesses already use.

The panel’s comments at Consensus Miami came as the CLARITY Act moves toward its Senate Banking Committee markup on May 14. As crypto.news reported, five major banking trade groups rejected the Tillis-Alsobrooks stablecoin compromise language just days before the vote.

The executives at Consensus did not directly address the markup, but their remarks underscored why the regulatory outcome matters to companies building stablecoin payment products at scale.

The stablecoin market currently sits at approximately 317 billion dollars in total value. Western Union announced its USDPT stablecoin on Solana earlier in May, with issuance through Anchorage Digital.

That entry reflects exactly the dynamic Harrison described: regulation has lowered the barrier, but the infrastructure needed to make stablecoins work in everyday consumer contexts is still being built.

Swiss campaigners will drop a bid to get the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold bitcoin BTC$80,399.78 in its reserves after collecting only about half of the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger a national referendum.

The initiative sought to change Switzerland’s constitution so the SNB would hold bitcoin alongside gold and foreign-currency reserves. The group had 18 months to gather signatures and push for the country’s direct democracy to vote on the subject.

The Federal Chancellery listed the proposal as an amendment to the country’s Federal Constitution, requiring part of the SNB’s monetary reserves to be held in gold and bitcoin. The text did not specify an allocation.

The campaign had framed bitcoin as a neutral reserve asset and a hedge against exposure to dollar- and euro-denominated holdings. Supporters said those currencies make up roughly three-quarters of the SNB’s foreign-currency reserves, according to Reuters.

The SNB had already rejected the idea last year, when it opposed adding bitcoin to its reserves over concerns surrounding the cryptocurrency’s liquidity and volatility.

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf posted a net loss of $427 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from the $61.4 million loss recorded in the same period a year earlier.

Total revenue for the quarter came in at $34 million, with high-performance computing (HPC) lease revenue accounting for $21 million, roughly 60% of the total and a 117% jump from the prior quarter, according to a Friday announcement. Bitcoin mining revenue fell 50% to around $13 million.

The HPC revenue was driven by 60 megawatts of operational critical IT capacity at Lake Mariner, one of North America’s largest HPC campuses, leased to Core42. TeraWulf is also coordinating infrastructure delivery with Fluidstack and Google, with additional capacity buildings on track for delivery in 2026.  The company ended the quarter with approximately $3.1 billion in cash.

“Our capital structure is designed to align long-term financing with contracted cash flows, supporting disciplined growth while maintaining financial flexibility,” chief financial officer Patrick Fleury said.

Related: CoreWeave shows how crypto-era infrastructure quietly became AI’s backbone

TeraWulf accelerates AI transition

In October last year, TeraWulf announced a 25-year lease deal with Fluidstack, backed by Google, worth around $9.5 billion in contracted revenues, an expansion of an earlier 10-year commitment. The miner is also building out a national pipeline of power-advantaged sites, including a newly acquired 480 MW site in Hawesville, Kentucky, a 300 MW project in Lansing, New York, and a 210 MW site in Morgantown, Maryland, with potential to scale to 1 gigawatt.

“We are building a power-advantaged platform that we believe is increasingly differentiated in a market constrained by access to power,” CEO Paul Prager said, noting that the company’s Abernathy joint venture, a 168 MW HPC project under a 25-year lease, remains on track for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Shares of WULF closed the day down 2.6%, though the stock has gained more than 105% since the start of the year and is up over 30% in the past month.

TeraWulf shares decline. Source: Yahoo! Finance

Related: Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Liquidates Entire BTC Treasury, Holdings Fall to Zero

Riot’s data center business generates $33 million in revenue

As Cointelegraph reported, Riot Platforms posted $167.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026, with its newly launched data center business contributing $33.2 million, helping offset a decline in Bitcoin mining revenue, which fell to $111.9 million from $142.9 million a year earlier.

Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI infrastructure as shrinking margins push the industry toward more predictable revenue, with Core Scientific, MARA Holdings, Hive, Hut 8 and Iren converting mining facilities into data centers or acquiring AI compute assets.

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

Emerging markets accounted for 77% of Binance users in 2026, up from 49% in 2020, as users in those countries increasingly used the exchange for savings, payments and investment access, the exchange said.

Binance Research’s latest report frames crypto adoption as a financial-access story rather than a trading story. Binance said 83% of users engaging with two or more products on the platform are based in emerging markets, while users in those markets show savings rates more than twice as high as users in developed markets.

About 36% of emerging-market Binance users with balances of at least $10 hold at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins, according to the report, which points to the pattern as “consistent with savings-oriented usage.” Globally, 28% of users meet that threshold, up from 4% in 2020.

The data points to growing use of crypto platforms as substitute financial infrastructure in markets where banking access remains limited.

The World Bank says 1.3 billion adults still lack access to financial services, while 900 million unbanked adults own a mobile phone and 530 million own a smartphone.

Binance said 4.7 billion adults lack access to credit or loans, 3.6 billion adults in low- and middle-income countries do not use digital payments or cards, and 1.4 billion savers in those countries earn no interest on deposits.

Stablecoins are central to the argument. Binance said transfers on high-performance networks can cost as little as $0.0001 and settle almost instantly, compared with a minimum of $20 for cross-border SWIFT transactions. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database puts the global average remittance cost above the UN target of less than 3%.

Stablecoins are, in fact, increasingly being used in emerging markets for remittances, savings and cross-border commerce, while also drawing warnings from Moody’s, the IMF and other institutions over monetary-sovereignty and financial-resilience risks.

Data from Brazil’s tax authority, for example, has shown stablecoins drive 90% of the country’s crypto volume.

The US banking lobby is mounting a last-minute push to stall the CLARITY Act just days before its scheduled Senate Banking Committee markup on May 14.

The American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum, and the Independent Community Bankers of America issued a joint statement this week rejecting the compromise stablecoin yield language drafted by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. The coalition said the proposed language falls short of its policy goals and leaves dangerous loopholes that could trigger deposit flight from traditional banks.

The banking groups argue that Section 404 of the CLARITY Act still permits crypto platforms to offer rewards tied to account balances and how long users hold assets, which they say amounts to offering deposit interest under a different name. “Research demonstrates that yield-earning stablecoins could reduce all consumer, small-business, and farm loans by one-fifth or more,” the coalition said in its joint statement, adding that it is “imperative that Congress get this right.”

Lummis and Tillis push back

The response from the bill’s sponsors was immediate. Senator Cynthia Lummis, who chairs the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, posted on X that the finalized bipartisan text “is the culmination of months of hard work to deliver a compromise on yield we can all live with.” Senator Tillis, who co-authored the deal, was sharper in his pushback, warning that certain factions within traditional finance may simply oppose any version of the CLARITY Act and are using the stablecoin yield debate as a mechanism to stall the legislation indefinitely.

Tillis’s closing line in his public defense left little room for ambiguity: “Some in the banking industry may not want either of these things to happen, and we respectfully agree to disagree.” The synchronized public defense from Lummis and Tillis signals the bipartisan coalition behind the compromise is holding firm as the markup window narrows.

The CLARITY Act cleared the House 294 to 134 in July 2025 and passed the Senate Agriculture Committee in January 2026, but has repeatedly stalled in the Senate Banking Committee over the stablecoin yield dispute. As crypto.news reported, senators including Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno have said that failure before the May 21 Memorial Day recess could push the next viable window to 2030.

What comes next

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott confirmed the markup hearing for May 14 at 10:30 am. The White House has set a July 4 target for passage, with crypto adviser Patrick Witt describing the stablecoin yield deal as closed. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at Consensus Miami 2026 this week that the past week represented a “big positive shift” in Senate momentum.

Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn has estimated the bill’s passage odds at roughly 50-50, while prediction markets currently put the figure above 60%. A HarrisX poll released this week found that 52% of registered US voters support the CLARITY Act, with 47% saying they would consider backing a candidate outside their preferred party if that candidate supported the legislation and theirs did not.

For the bill to reach the president’s desk, it must clear the Senate Banking Committee markup, survive a 60-vote floor threshold, be reconciled with the Senate Agriculture Committee version, and then reconciled with the House-passed text. Each of those steps carries its own risk of failure.

Key Highlights

• Shares of APH declined 6.29% as investors took profits after a robust earnings-driven rally
• First quarter 2026 earnings per share reached $1.06 versus analyst expectations of $0.95; sales totaled $7.62B against forecasts of $7.08B
• Analysts at Wall Street Zen and Zacks moved their ratings to “Hold” from “Buy”
• Chief Executive Richard Norwitt offloaded more than 515,000 shares during February for approximately $75.9M
• Average analyst price target stands at $176.53 supported by 13 Buy recommendations and 2 Hold ratings

Shares of Amphenol (APH) tumbled 6.29% on Friday, beginning the session at $127.72, as market participants retreated following a sustained period of appreciation.

Amphenol Corporation, APH

The decline seems driven by profit-taking dynamics rather than fundamental deterioration in the company’s operations. APH had experienced a significant run-up prior to its earnings announcement, prompting some investors to lock in gains.

The company’s first quarter 2026 performance exceeded expectations across key metrics. Earnings per share landed at $1.06, comfortably surpassing the Wall Street consensus of $0.95. Revenue figures impressed at $7.62 billion, substantially outpacing the anticipated $7.08 billion — representing a remarkable 58.4% year-over-year increase.

Looking ahead to Q2 2026, management provided earnings guidance between $1.14 and $1.16 per share. The Street’s current projection for full-year earnings stands at $4.76 per share.

Despite the impressive quarterly performance, market participants appear to be reassessing valuation levels. APH currently commands a price-to-earnings multiple of 36.70 alongside a PEG ratio of 1.20.

Analyst Rating Adjustments Create Headwinds

Wall Street Zen downgraded APH from “Buy” to “Hold” over the weekend. Zacks implemented an identical rating change in March, pointing to valuation considerations as the primary rationale.

However, the overall analyst community maintains a constructive outlook. Among the 15 firms covering the stock, 13 maintain Buy recommendations while only 2 assign Hold ratings. The consensus price objective rests at $176.53.

Evercore boosted its price target to $180 with an “Outperform” stance following the earnings release. Truist demonstrated even greater confidence, elevating its target to $200 while maintaining its “Buy” rating. Barclays similarly preserved its “Overweight” recommendation with a $180 price target.

Executive Share Sales Raise Questions

Chief Executive Officer Richard Adam Norwitt divested 515,281 shares throughout February at a mean price of $147.27, generating proceeds of approximately $75.9 million. This transaction reduced his direct stake by 21.09%.

Collectively, company insiders have disposed of 646,056 shares during the past 90 days — generating combined proceeds near $94.6 million.

While insider transactions don’t necessarily indicate problems ahead, the magnitude and timing of these sales have caught investors’ attention.

Institutional investors continue to maintain substantial holdings at 97.01% of outstanding shares. Multiple smaller investment firms established new positions during Q4 and Q1, though at relatively modest scale.

An additional consideration affecting investor sentiment involves a recent senior notes offering that elevated the debt-to-equity ratio to 1.18. While not particularly concerning, this development adds another variable for balance sheet-focused investors to monitor.

The stock’s 52-week trading range extends from $80.32 to $167.04. The 50-day moving average currently sits at $137.31, while the 200-day moving average registers at $139.35 — both positioned above the present trading price.

APH has generated a year-to-date return of 1.30%, and technical indicators continue to flash a Buy signal. The company maintains its regular quarterly dividend distribution.

To most people, trading in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTC$80,285.43, boils down to a simple question: Will prices go up or down?

But there’s another dimension to trading, which is volatility, a measure of how volatile prices could be regardless of direction. It’s already a hugely popular trade in stock markets, and now CME wants to bring it to bitcoin.

The world’s leading derivatives marketplace announced this week its plan to debut Bitcoin volatility futures on June 1, pending regulatory approval.

Unlike traditional bitcoin futures, the new contracts will not track the cryptocurrency’s price directly. Instead, they will refer to the CME CF Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVX), which represents the market’s expectations for bitcoin volatility over the next 4 weeks.

In simple terms, traders will be able to bet on whether bitcoin markets are about to become more chaotic or more stable, without necessarily taking a view on whether prices themselves are heading higher or lower.

“Crypto market participants are seeking regulated products that provide opportunities to gain digital assets exposure when markets move,” Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, said in the press release. “With our new Bitcoin volatility futures, traders will be able to invest or hedge against the future volatility of bitcoin, allowing them to access a critical new layer of risk management.

Note that offshore exchanges such as Deribit offer futures tied to their own bitcoin volatility indices, but these volatility markets remain relatively small and outside the scope of participation for most U.S. institutions. Moreover, the onshore crypto market still lacks a mature, CME-style bitcoin volatility futures product, so volatility exposure and hedging is primarily achieved through options and other synthetic structures.

CME’s latest offering will expand the exchange’s existing product suite, which includes bitcoin futures and options. Futures went live in December 2017 and have since become the preferred instrument for institutions seeking directional exposure and arbitrage opportunities. They have generated billions in trading volume and open interest, even surpassing offshore giant Binance at one point last year.

This trend of the institutionalization of bitcoin accelerated with the debut of 11 spot-listed bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, and the subsequent debut and rapid rise in popularity of options tied to BlackRock’s IBIT.

So, CME’s volatility futures seem like the next logical step, helping institutions manage risk beyond price direction into volatility itself, according to Sam Gaer, chief investment officer of Monarq Asset Management’s Directional Fund.

“IBIT options open interest surpassing Deribit is a clear signal of institutional demand, and vol futures are the natural next step,” Gaer told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

Gaer pointed to the way volatility trading evolved in traditional markets, noting that the CBOE Volatility Index, VIX, also known as the fear gauge, didn’t become a deeply liquid asset class on its own. Instead, liquidity accelerated only after exchange-traded funds and broader structured products built around VIX futures created a self-reinforcing ecosystem.

In other words, the growth in volatility trading was driven by derivatives linked to the spot VIX index. Once those products existed, volume attracted more volume, eventually turning volatility into a standalone market in its own right.

“VIX futures did not reach escape velocity until the ETF ecosystem developed around the futures (not the spot index, notably), and the same flywheel dynamic applies here. Volume begets volume. If CME’s product construction and composition are clearly defined and easily disseminated, this has the potential to be a watershed moment for Bitcoin volatility as an asset class,” Gaer said.

Key Highlights

• RKLB shares climbed to a fresh 52-week peak of $105.62 following TD Cowen’s price target increase from $90 to $120 with a Buy recommendation
• First quarter 2026 revenue hit an all-time high of $200.3 million, representing a ~63% increase from the prior year and surpassing analyst projections
• Second quarter revenue outlook upgraded to a range of $225–$240 million, suggesting roughly 16% quarter-over-quarter expansion
• Total order backlog surged 108% to an unprecedented $2.2 billion, with launch services accounting for 42% and space systems making up 58%
• Major wins include a $30 million hypersonic HASTE agreement with Anduril and the strategic purchase of space robotics company Motive Space Systems

Shares of Rocket Lab (RKLB) exploded higher by 34% during Friday’s trading session, finishing at $105.55 after touching a new 52-week high of $105.62 — a dramatic leap from the previous day’s close of $78.58. Trading volume surged to 76 million shares, approximately 247% higher than the three-month daily average.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc., RKLB

The dramatic rally followed an exceptional first quarter 2026 earnings release. The company reported record revenue of $200.3 million, representing a 63% year-over-year increase that exceeded Wall Street consensus estimates. The per-share loss narrowed to just $0.07, also outperforming analyst expectations.

TD Cowen wasted no time responding to the strong results. The investment firm boosted its RKLB price objective from $90 to $120 while reaffirming its Buy recommendation, providing additional momentum to an already explosive trading day.

The impressive performance extended beyond just top-line figures. Rocket Lab’s total backlog expanded by 108% to reach an all-time high of $2.2 billion. The composition shows increasing diversification, with 42% attributed to launch services and 58% coming from space systems operations.

Executives also elevated their second quarter revenue projection to a range of $225 million through $240 million. Such performance would represent another quarterly record and indicate approximately 16% growth from the first quarter.

Strategic Contracts and Defense Partnerships

Along with the quarterly performance, Rocket Lab unveiled multiple strategic agreements supporting its forward outlook.

The aerospace company secured what it described as its largest-ever launch agreement, encompassing numerous Neutron and Electron missions for a client that wasn’t publicly disclosed. This deal provides substantial revenue certainty to an already expanding backlog.

Rocket Lab also secured a $30 million HASTE hypersonic launch agreement with Anduril Industries. This collaboration brings together two prominent players in the defense technology sector.

Additionally, a Space Force demonstration project with Raytheon was revealed, further validating strong demand for Rocket Lab’s launch services within the defense industry.

During the quarter, Rocket Lab completed the acquisition of Motive Space Systems, a space robotics company, in a strategic move that could position the firm for expanded involvement in upcoming exploration initiatives.

Wall Street Perspectives

Analyst sentiment leans positive overall, though opinions vary across the Street. Roth MKm increased its price objective from $90 to $100 while maintaining a Buy recommendation prior to the earnings announcement. Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its Overweight stance with an $85 target back in March.

Conversely, Wells Fargo launched coverage in April with an Equal Weight rating and a $60 price target — significantly beneath current trading levels. KeyCorp moved RKLB to Sector Weight in January.

According to MarketBeat consensus data, the stock carries a “Moderate Buy” rating with a mean price target of $90. That average now trails the actual stock price considerably after Friday’s surge.

Recent insider transactions have leaned toward selling activity. Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice offloaded approximately 62,744 shares at $69.59 during March. Insider Frank Klein disposed of 36,768 shares at $71.95 around that same period. Total insider sales over the previous 90 days reached roughly 233,449 shares valued at approximately $16.5 million.

Institutional investors control 71.78% of outstanding shares. The stock’s 50-day moving average currently stands at $72.88, while the 200-day moving average rests at $68.50, both significantly trailing current price levels.

Following Friday’s rally, Rocket Lab’s market capitalization now stands at roughly $61 billion.