Crypto World
What about the American consumer?
Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:
- Alex Tapscott on the stalling of the CLARITY Act and how it’s impacting the average American consumer.
- Aisha Hunt writes that crypto will grow by upgrading Wall Street’s trusted products rather than replacing them.
- Top headlines institutions should pay attention to by Helene Braun
- “RWA Perp Volume by Category: Equities Overtake Commodities” in Chart of the Week
Expert Insights
What about the American consumer?
By Alex Tapscott, CEO, CMCC Global Capital Markets
The little guy is getting lost in the political horse-trading around the CLARITY Act.
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee recently advanced the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, legislation that, if enacted, could finally establish clear rules for digital assets in the United States. The bill has survived months of bipartisan negotiations and horse trading between banking interests and upstart fintech companies.
A bipartisan compromise brokered by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) broke a log-jam that had slowed down the bill’s progress. In the end, the banks got most of what they wanted in this “deal”: the legislation explicitly prevents fintech platforms from treating stablecoins, digital assets backed by dollars, as interest bearing accounts, while still permitting them to pay rewards and bonuses, as banks and credit card issuers do.
That should have ended the debate. Yet banking lobby groups are demanding tighter restrictions to eliminate many forms of consumer rewards altogether. Clearly, they seek to squash this already compromised bill before a full Senate vote, so that it never reaches the Resolute Desk.
Lost amid the political wrangling of crypto and banking interests is the average American consumer.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Americans paid roughly $5.8 billion in overdraft fees in 2023, even after years of industry efforts to reduce so-called “junk fees.” Overdraft charges disproportionately hit financially vulnerable households, with nearly 80% of fees concentrated among 9% of accounts. And then there are account minimums, wire charges and payment delays, which add friction. Meanwhile, the average savings rate is only 0.38%.
Consumers want financial services to move faster, cost less and earn them more.
Stablecoins are gaining popularity because they herald a world where digital dollars move across the internet as cheaply and seamlessly as a WhatsApp message. They can lower remittance costs, improve access to digital commerce, expedite real-time payments and create new ways for consumers to save, spend and transact online.
And Americans are asking for CLARITY because many already use these tools. According to the Crypto Council for Innovation, one in five American adults now owns cryptocurrency. That’s roughly 68.5 million people. Stablecoins are among the fastest-growing categories of digital assets, particularly among younger consumers, immigrants, freelancers and underserved communities seeking faster and cheaper financial tools. Four in five merchants believe accepting crypto could help attract new customers, while 73% of small business owners expect crypto payments to grow.
That’s what makes this debate so politically mystifying. For years, progressives argued that concentrated financial power harmed consumers and Main Street. They criticized large banks for extracting rents while lobbying against regulations that diluted bank influence. Those critiques were often correct. Today some of those progressives, like Elizabeth Warren, who championed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are now defending banking profits against a technology that could inject real competition into financial services and empower consumers and small businesses.
Congress should pass CLARITY in its current form to benefit American consumers and preserve American competitiveness and leadership in the next era of financial technology. This lead is by no means assured: today, 88% of global crypto trading volume occurs on non-U.S.-based exchanges, while foreign-issued stablecoins account for 75% of stablecoin volume. Over the past decade, the U.S. share of global crypto developers has fallen from 38% to just 19%.
Do American politicians want their country to continue leading, or do they prefer watching such financial transformation from the sidelines?
In the 1990s, the Clinton administration helped usher in the commercial internet through the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a bipartisan effort expanding innovation and competition. Now, Congress has an opportunity to unleash the new internet of value by passing CLARITY.
Under GENIUS and CLARITY, stablecoin issuers must meet strong reserve requirements, transparency obligations, anti-money laundering standards, cybersecurity rules and consumer protections. Sensible public policy will unleash investment and innovation, as it did in the internet era.
This story need not end in conflict between banks and blockchains. Incumbents can just as easily embrace blockchain and its various benefits, from real-time global settlement and tokenized assets, to new forms of on-chain lending, payments, savings and commerce.
The question is whether lawmakers will vote to lead this next technological revolution and advance the interests of American consumers or cede the future to entrenched interests.
Principled Perspectives
Why Crypto May Need ETFs More Than ETFs Need Crypto
By Aisha Hunt, founder of Kelley Hunt, PLLC
Crypto spent its first decade trying to replace Wall Street. Its next trillion dollars may come from partnering with it. The first wave of tokenization focused on creating new assets, new venues and new systems outside traditional finance. Some of that innovation mattered. Much of it struggled with the same problem: markets do not scale on technology alone. They scale on trust, liquidity and distribution. That reality favors ETFs.
The ETF wrapper became one of the most successful financial products of the modern era because it solved practical investor problems at scale: low-cost access, transparency, intraday liquidity, operational simplicity and broad distribution across brokerage platforms and advisory channels.
Those advantages took decades to build. Tokenization does not erase them. In fact, it may amplify them. If blockchain rails can be integrated into ETFs, investors may not have to choose between innovation and protection. They could gain exposure to familiar products with the potential benefits of faster settlement, programmable ownership, collateral mobility and broader digital interoperability, all inside a structure already trusted by institutions, advisors and retail investors.
That is a far bigger commercial opportunity than asking trillions of dollars to migrate into unfamiliar vehicles. This is why one underappreciated development matters. On January 21, 2026, F/m Investments LLC and The RBB Fund, Inc. filed what is believed to be the first exemptive application by an ETF issuer seeking to tokenize shares of an exchange-traded fund, TBIL, the U.S. Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF. The proposal would record ownership on a permissioned blockchain ledger while preserving the same fund, same economics, same exchange listing and same regulatory framework. The application remains pending before the SEC, and there can be no assurance relief will be granted. That may sound like a niche legal filing. It is not. It is a test of whether capital markets modernization happens inside the regulatory perimeter or outside it.
That distinction matters to investors because the next major on-chain growth category may not be speculative tokens. It may be trusted yield, usable collateral and regulated exposure. Stablecoins already demonstrated the demand for digitally native dollars. The next logical step is digitally native instruments backed by real portfolios, real governance and real investor protections.
That is where tokenized ETFs could become powerful.
Imagine Treasury exposure that can plug into next-generation collateral networks. Imagine ETF shares that remain within familiar regulatory guardrails while operating on more modern rails. Imagine advisors and institutions accessing blockchain efficiency without having to underwrite experimental structures.
The first tokenization narrative was “replace incumbents.” The stronger narrative may be “upgrade incumbents.” That does not diminish crypto; it commercializes it.
For regulators, tokenized ETFs may offer a pragmatic path forward: enable innovation where investor protections remain intact, rather than pushing demand into parallel channels with greater uncertainty. For exchanges, custodians, brokers and market makers, it could create a new infrastructure layer around products investors already understand.
For issuers, it may become a race. The firms that combine trusted wrappers, credible assets and functional on-chain rails could capture disproportionate flows. And for allocators, the signal may be simple: blockchain technology is becoming less about novelty and more about plumbing.That is usually when real adoption begins.
The broader lesson is that distribution often beats disruption:
Who already has trusted wrappers?
Who already has liquidity?
Who already has access to advisors, retirement assets and institutions?
Who can bridge old rails and new rails fastest?
Those questions point toward ETFs.
The next trillion dollars of tokenized assets may not come from inventing something entirely new; they may come from upgrading what already works. Crypto’s first era was about building outside the system. Its next era may be about powering the system.
Headlines of the week
By Helene Braun
A few of crypto’s biggest debates converged this past week as Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) sold bitcoin to fund preferred stock dividends, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon escalated his fight against yield-bearing stablecoins during the CLARITY Act debate, and Citi projected tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030, driven by rising demand for onchain Treasuries and tokenized stocks.
Chart of the Week
RWA Perp Volume by Category: Equities Overtake Commodities (excluding oil)
RWA perps run ~$45–60 billion/week, and flow is rotating out of commodities into equities. Equities roughly tripled to ~$18 billion and just overtook the commodities (excluding oil) block, while oil faded after its April macro spike. This implies that crypto-venue derivatives are increasingly used for 24/7 equity exposure, with commodities now the episodic, event-driven slice.
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Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc., CoinDesk Indices or its owners and affiliates.
Binance disclosed a revenue-sharing arrangement with custodian and brokerage infrastructure API provider Alpaca, which has become a major infrastructure provider in the custody of tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Under Binance Securities Trading Terms published Tuesday, Binance will receive 50% of Alpaca’s payment-for-order-flow fees and 65% of remaining profit from user stock lending after users are paid interest, Binance will receive 50% of Alpaca’s payment-for-order-flow, or PFOF, fees and 65% of profit from user stock lending after the platform pays user interest.
Alpaca provides brokerage, clearing and custody infrastructure for Binance’s stock trading product and is also a major infrastructure provider in tokenized US stocks and ETFs. The company raised $150 million at an $1.15 billion valuation for its brokerage infrastructure in January.
The disclosure shows how Binance may monetize its push beyond crypto after launching access to more than 7,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs and previewing a later tokenized stock product called bStocks.
Cointelegraph contacted Binance for comment on the arrangement and asked whether it holds a minority stake in Alpaca.
Binance Securities Trading Terms for tokenized stocks and ETFs, Revenue-Sharing Arrangements. Source: Binance
Alpaca said it held $480 million in assets under custody (AUC) as of December 2025, which represents a 29% market share of the current $1.62 billion value of total tokenized stocks, according to data provider RWA.xyz.
The total value of tokenized stocks rose by around 29% during the past 30 days, while holders rose 35% to 304,700. However, monthly active addresses declined by over 77%, to 31,877, signaling that investors are holding, rather than actively trading, these assets.
Tokenized stock market total value. Source: RWA.xyz
Crypto exchanges expand into tokenized US stocks
Other large cryptocurrency exchanges are also expanding their offering to include US stocks and ETFs, responding to the growing investor demand for more accessible blockchain-based trading products.
In April, crypto exchange Bitget launched a proxy offering tied to the pre-initial public offering (IPO) phase of Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
Related: South Korea plans July rules for tokenized securities
Binance also launched a SpaceX-linked pre-IPO futures product tied to the expected valuation of the company ahead of its public listing, Cointelegraph reported on May 21.
Source: Binance
In January, Vienna-based crypto exchange Bitpanda said it was expanding its offering to include about 10,000 stocks and ETFs.
In April 2025, Kraken launched 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs with commission-free trading in an effort to bring “equities and digital assets together” under one trading platform, as part of a “phased national rollout.”
Magazine: Block by block: Blockchain technology is transforming the real estate market
Trump-promoted US stocks have been among the most talked-about names on Wall Street this year, and three stand out for traders. One earned a Truth Social post for its war-fighting tech.
Another rode a government stake and a strong quarter. A third got a direct buy-it call at the White House. Here is how each trade is looking as we head deeper into 2026.
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR)
PLTR trades near $142, down 6.5% in the latest session. The pullback interrupts a sharp run that made it one of the standout Trump-promoted US stocks this spring.
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On April 10, Trump posted on Truth Social that Palantir had proven great war-fighting capabilities. The stock was near its April low of around $122 at the time. Since then, it has rebounded about 33%.
Note: Palantir makes AI software rather than weapons, but its platforms power the US military and intelligence work.
That bounce has not broken the broader downtrend. PLTR still trades inside a falling channel, a downward-sloping price range that has held since early November. The structure stays bearish until the price escapes it.
The key levels come from Fibonacci levels, which measure the proportional pullback of a prior move. It runs from the $207 November high to the $122 April low, revealing key levels. PLTR failed to clear $165 on June 1, a key technical level. The real trigger sits at $175, near the channel’s upper boundary.
A move above it by about 15% would shift the structure from bearish to neutral-bullish.
The bearish case is building too. Selling volume has risen since May 22, and a weak broader market could drag PLTR lower. A drop under $142 would expose the $122 low again.
Above $175 turns the trend, while rising sell volume and a break under $142 keep the bears in control throughout June.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC)
INTC trades near $108, down 1.28% in the latest session, though pre-market quotes point higher near $114. The stock is the most policy-linked of the Trump-promoted stocks.
The Trump administration holds a stake in Intel, and that position is up nearly 250% as of late April, per data. Trump has taken public credit for the chipmaker’s surge. The fundamentals backed him up.
Intel’s Q1 2026 earnings drove a 15% jump, pushing the stock past its August 2000 record high.
That report powered a much larger run. INTC climbed from about $40 in late March to a peak near $133, a gain above 200%. The move formed a bull flag, a pause that follows a sharp rally and often resolves higher.
The recent dip looks like profit-taking. Price slipped from late May into early June, yet volume held steady rather than spiking. That hints sellers are not panicking. INTC now sits near $108, closing in on the $102 base.
The first hurdle to the upside is $124, where the breakout stalled. A reclaim there opens the path to the $133 peak, again in June, about 24% higher, then $159 and $194.
The bearish case matters too. A drop under $102 weakens the pattern considerably, and a break under $79 would invalidate it. Hold above $102 and reclaim $124 to keep the flag alive, or lose $102 and risk a slide to $79.
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL)
DELL trades near $435, down 6.58% in the latest session after touching a record near $469. It carries the most direct endorsement of the three.
In early May, Trump told a White House crowd to go out and buy a Dell, calling them great. The stock was already climbing, and the comment added fuel. Since late March, DELL has run from about $155 to its $469 peak. It has roughly doubled in the weeks since the direct endorsement.
The move traces a clean pole with the flag (consolidation) expected to form now. This is because the volume faded as the price peaked around May 29, while selling pressure has built since late May. Buyers are stepping back, suggesting a pullback.
The economic anchor is real, as Dell’s AI server demand and a $9.7 billion Pentagon contract back the rally continuation, despite the possible pullback.
The key levels come from the Fibonacci levels of the run from $155 to $468. A pullback is likely to first test $394, then $349. Holding there would keep the uptrend intact and set up another push. The bearish case builds below.
A drop under $312 toward $275 would signal a deeper unwind. The risk grows if AI server spending cools or the political tailwind fades.
For now, DELL needs a daily close back above $468 to prove the rally still has strength.
The post 3 Trump-Promoted US Stocks to Watch in June appeared first on BeInCrypto.
XRP price is bleeding. The token is changing hands at $1.21–$1.24 as it losses 2% today, and the weekly chart looks worse, down 7%.
The selloff accelerated since earlier this week, extending a downtrend that began mid-May when XRP peaked at $1.55. Since that local top, the token has sliced through a critical support zone and hit its lowest price since February.
All the above put the cumulative drawdown at over 66% from its all-time high last year. However, the drop is broad-based: total crypto market cap has collapsed from above $4 trillion to just $2.4 trillion as most altcoins are down double digits alongside XRP.
But it just seems unusual for XRP. Spot XRP ETFs pulled in over $131 million in May alone, their strongest monthly performance this year, while Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin now carries over $1.8 billion in AUM and $22 billion in 30-day volume. Strong fundamentals, weak price.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
Can XRP Price Recover to $1.50? Realistically
XRP price broke support and has not reclaimed it. The key level to watch is the $1.20 zone, which served as consolidation support through much of Q1. A confirmed daily close below that figure would open a path toward $1.00–$1.05, a range last tested in late 2024.
On the upside, the former support around $1.40–$1.45 now acts as resistance; reclaiming that level would be the minimum requirement for any credible bull case.
Three scenarios frame the near-term path. If ETF inflows accelerate, sentiment flips, and XRP reclaims $1.40 within two weeks, XRP price might finally recover. Or it grinds sideways between $1.20 and $1.35 as the market stabilizes.
Now the ugly scenario. If the $1.20 floor cracks and momentum sellers pile in, the token might retest sub-$1.10 levels. The momentum indicators currently favor the bear range.
Ripple’s regulatory wins, licenses secured in the UK, Australia, and the EU, plus a $50 billion company valuation, provide a long-term floor under sentiment. AI-driven price models remain bullish on a 12-month horizon, but near-term technicals suggest caution.
Discover: The Best Token Presales
LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as XRP Tests Key Levels
When a major-cap asset like XRP sheds 12% in a week despite institutional ETF demand, the message is clear: size does not guarantee safety in this cycle. Rotating into earlier-stage infrastructure plays before institutional price discovery begins is a strategy worth examining.
LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is a Layer 3 infrastructure project positioning itself as the cross-chain liquidity layer for the next cycle. Its core proposition is straightforward: fuse Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single execution environment, so developers deploy once and access all three ecosystems simultaneously.
LiquidChain is cooking.
The Order doesn't sleep. ⟁pic.twitter.com/CXY4ya0MC5
— LiquidChain (@getliquidchain) June 3, 2026
The architecture includes a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, Verifiable Settlement, and a Deploy-Once Architecture designed to eliminate the fragmentation that currently makes cross-chain development painful and expensive.
The presale is live at $0.01466 per $LIQUID, with $820K to date.
For those researching the space, the full LiquidChain presale details are here.
The post XRP Price Loses Key Support: The Drawdown May Not Be Over Yet appeared first on Cryptonews.
Ether (ETH) dropped to $1,814 on Wednesday, its lowest in over 14 weeks, raising concerns about whether the ETH/USD pair can stabilize above key liquidity zones near its multi-year lows at $1,800.
ETH/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Key takeaways:
- Ether fell to a 14-week low near $1,800, with traders warning a breakdown could trigger deeper losses toward $1,200-$1,600.
- The Coinbase Premium Index hit its lowest level since February, signaling persistent weakness in US spot demand.
- Spot Ethereum ETFs logged sixteen straight days of outflows.
Ether sits on weak support at $1,800
Ether’s technical structure has weakened after losing support at $2,000 and $2,200. Note that all the major moving averages lie within this zone on the daily chart.
Today, ETH traded as low as $1,814 on Bitstamp, while the daily relative strength index (RSI) fell to 25, its lowest level since Feb. 6, highlighting strong downside pressure and oversold conditions.
Related: Bitmine buys $52M ETH as Tom Lee says price not yet showing Ethereum’s strength
However, this might also mean that the sellers are losing momentum, suggesting a possible price rebound from current levels, akin to the 39% rebound seen in February.
ETH/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Traders say Ether’s bullishness hinges on the ETH/USD pair holding above the crucial $1,800 support.
“$ETH almost tapped the $1,800 level today,” analyst Ted Pillows said in a Wednesday post on X, adding:
“This is the last support zone for Ethereum before new lows.”
An accompanying chart revealed that a break below $1,800 would bring areas below $1,700 into the picture.
ETH/USD daily chart. Source: X/Ted Pillows
Additionally, fellow analyst CrypDoMillions said losing $1,800 would send ETH price lower toward $1,600.
ETH/USD daily chart. Source: X/CrypDoMillions
Not all traders had confidence in Ether’s ability to remain above $1,800, with analyst BitFrog saying that “$ETH is on life support” at current levels, adding:
“Bulls better wake up fast. $1,800 looks shaky, honestly.”
The Entity-Adjusted UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) metric, showing at which prices the current set of ETH UTXOs were created, shows that ETH trades above a relatively open zone between $1,800 and $1,250, where there’s less demand.
This means ETH may move more into this range if the sell-off continues, with the downside possibly capped at $1,200. This is where investors acquired more than 1.4 million ETH.
ETH: Entity-Adjusted URPD. Source: Glassnode
Meanwhile, Ether’s cost-basis distribution heatmap shows weak accumulation between $1,200 and $1,800, suggesting a potential pathway toward the lower zone in the short term.
Ether’s Coinbase Premium falls to February levels
The Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks the price difference between ETH on Coinbase and Binance, dropped to -0.16 on May 28, before recovering to -0.13.
A deeply negative premium confirms that the selling pressure is originating from US entities. The last time the metric was this negative was during the early February sell-off when ETH price dropped to multi-year lows at $1,750.
Historically, extreme negative premiums often coincided with capitulation phases, as seen in April 2025 and during the 2022 bear market.
This implies that as long as US investors sell at a discount compared to the global market, the bears remain in control.
Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index. Source: CryptoQuant
“Coinbase Premium has fallen into a notable discount, signaling potential weakness in spot demand,” crypto investor and trader Thomas The Trader said in an X post on Tuesday.
“ETH Coinbase Premium just reached its lowest point since February,” analyst Inoms said in a Monday X post, adding:
“The message is clear: US demand is still weak.”
Weak US demand is also evidenced by heavy outflows from US-based spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These ETFs have posted outflows for sixteen consecutive days, the longest losing streak since March 2025.
Investors have withdrawn nearly $847.2 million from these investment products over this period, according to data from SoSoValue.
Spot Ethereum ETFs flows chart. Source: SoSoValue
Coupled with more than $257.3 million in outflows from global Ethereum investment products last week, this points to institutional selling, which will likely continue to put pressure on the price in the near term.
Ray Dalio says the AI bubble will burst, but not because the technology fails. The Bridgewater founder argues the real trigger comes when investors must convert paper wealth into cash.
He made the case in a Bloomberg television interview, saying liquidity demands, not earnings or technology, decide when a bubble finally cracks.
Why Wealth is Not the Same as Money
Dalio draws a sharp line between wealth and money. A startup can reach a billion-dollar valuation after raising only $50 million. That figure counts as wealth, yet nobody can spend it.
Money is what people actually spend. To reach it, holders must sell their wealth first. When wealth grows far faster than the money supply, the financial system turns fragile.
That gap sits at the heart of why so many billionaires stay bullish on AI while real cash remains scarce. AI firms can mint trillions in valuations without holding the money to back them.
The scale of the spending is large. Bridgewater estimates Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft could invest about $650 billion in AI infrastructure during 2026.
That marks a sharp jump from roughly $410 billion in 2025.
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What Could Force the Selling
The pricking starts when holders suddenly need cash, Dalio says. Debt payments, wealth taxes, or fund redemptions can each push large owners to sell at once.
“All great technology changes, produce bubbles. And the reason they produce bubbles is because nobody can get get it exactly right. Okay? There, you have to either spend a ton of money to capture your market share and so on,” Dalio said in the interview.
He ties the risk to a stretched government balance sheet. He notes the United States spends about $7 trillion against only $5 trillion in revenue. That deficit forces more debt into an already strained bond market.
He also pointed to bond market stress as a parallel pressure. Long rates rising relative to short rates often signals trouble, echoing his global monetary order warnings.
Dalio links the same dynamic to a possible world order breakdown and to rising structural inflation risk. His bubble indicators now sit near levels last seen in 2000 and 1929.
Dalio flags a vulnerable window after the midterm elections and before the presidential vote. Political conflict over taxes could sharpen the pressure then.
Still, he cautioned against panic selling and told investors to brace for lower returns ahead.
A Test for Every Risk Asset
The distinction matters far beyond AI stocks. It reaches every risk asset, from equities to crypto, where Dalio still favors digital gold Bitcoin, or BTC, over cash.
A sudden shock could speed up the reckoning. Dalio warned that a halt in chip exports from Taiwan would crash AI stocks fast.
Whether the squeeze arrives through taxes, debt, or redemptions may decide how the coming months play out for markets.
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The post Ray Dalio Says AI’s Biggest Threat Isn’t What Most People Think appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Binance Closes Its Centralized NFT Marketplace, Joining Coinbase, Kraken in CEX-Backed NFT Retreat
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, will shut its centralized NFT marketplace on July 3 and migrate the service into its self-custody Binance Wallet, the company said in an announcement published Wednesday, closing the last major centralized-exchange NFT venue still… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Mastercard Opens Card-Settlement Network on Eight Blockchains, Adding Weekend and Holiday Cycles
Mastercard on Tuesday opened its global card-settlement network to regulated stablecoins, allowing issuers and acquirers to clear card transactions onchain across eight blockchains and adding intraday, weekend and holiday settlement cycles for the first time. The company announced the expansion in… Read the full story at The Defiant
[Update (June 3 at 8:01 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Fairshake in the fourth paragraph.]
Democratic and Republican candidates across California, New Jersey and South Dakota won their respective primaries on Tuesday after being the beneficiaries of supportive ads purchased by cryptocurrency industry-backed political action committees (PACs).
On Tuesday, Democrats Jacqui Irwin, Ted Lieu, Zoe Lofgren, Dave Min, Mike McGuire, Hilda Solis, George Whitesides, Lou Correa and Lateefah Simon won their respective California primaries for House seats. Democrat Rob Menendez and Republican Mike Rounds also won primaries for New Jersey’s 8th congressional district and a South Dakota Senate seat, respectively.
Selection of results after Tuesday’s primaries for California House seats. Source: CalMatters
The political wins came after the Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs PACs spent about a combined $3.5 million on media to support the candidates. The groups are affiliated with Fairshake, a political action committee funded largely by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple Labs that reported having a war chest of $193 million in January.
“America needs members of Congress who will act to lay out responsible guardrails for the community to maintain our global leadership,” Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter told Cointelegraph.
The PAC spending came on the heels of similar buys for supportive media in Texas runoff primaries last week, which resulted in Democrat Christian Menefee defeating incumbent US Representative Al Green, and four Republican candidates winning primaries in smaller House districts. Many of the candidates in the state races have supported advancing digital assets, either through voting on “pro-crypto” legislation while in office like the GENIUS Act or in public statements.
Related: PACs laud Texas primary wins, look to back more pro-crypto candidates
Maryland is shaping up to be the next focus for Fairshake and its affiliates. Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings showed Protect Progress had spent more than $3.1 million as of Wednesday to support Democratic candidate Adrian Boafo in Maryland’s 5th Congressional district, which is scheduled to hold a primary on June 23.
Crypto advocacy organizations back new developer-focused PAC
On Wednesday, industry leaders announced the launch of Defend Developers, a hybrid PAC that will support “incumbent members of Congress who actively champion developer protections and crypto builders.” According to the group, Defend Developers’ board of directors includes “CEOs, CLOs, and policy leaders at top crypto organizations, including DeFi Education Fund, Orca Creative, Solana Policy Institute, and Uniswap Labs.”
“For too long, developers building decentralized technologies have faced regulatory uncertainty and enforcement actions instead of clear rules and guidelines,” said the PAC’s founder, Gavin Zavatone. “While legislation and rulemakings are being written as we speak, for some policymakers there is limited incentive to understand the fundamental nature of software development.”
No official data available on Defend Developers as of Wednesday. Source: FEC
The FEC portal did not show any funding or expenditure activity, as of Wednesday. Nick Stoltzfus, co-CEO of on-chain student loan digital asset platform Stratofied, was listed as treasurer and custodian of records in the PAC’s statement of organization on May 15.
The PAC did not say where or how it would focus its efforts as part of the 2026 US midterms other than “key races across the country.” Cointelegraph reached out to Defend Developers for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Magazine: Korea’s first memecoin rug-pull case, China’s crypto rules review: Asia Express
[PRESS RELEASE – Tel Aviv, Israel, June 3rd, 2026]
The market moves, $GCOIN leads. Today, $GCOIN officially lists on leading global exchange WEEX – marking the powerful start of five major exchange listings scheduled for this June alone. This coordinated global expansion is engineered to significantly expand accessibility , lower entry barriers for retail users, and scale the token’s footprint across key international markets. Behind this massive rollout is a single, undeniable reality: a token backed by real infrastructure, real utility, and an economy that never sleeps.
An Economy That Never Sleeps
$GCOIN is the core utility layer of the Playnance ecosystem – a unified, 24/7 on-chain iGaming economy processing approximately 1 million transactions daily. Every bet, every game, every partner platform, every payout flows through $GCOIN – across casino games, sports and esports betting, live trading, prediction markets, and jackpots. All verticals, all on-chain, all powered by one utility token- $GCOIN. As the ecosystem expands, $GCOIN continues to be used through staking, rewards, platform operations, and participation across every vertical. This is not a single-use asset, this is the engine of an entire digital economy.
Be The Boss: The Growth Engine Powering It All
At the heart of $GCOIN’s growing demand is Be The Boss – Playnance’s AI-powered Web3 iGaming protocol that has redefined what it means to be an operator. Anyone, including entrepreneurs, influencers, or streamers can launch a fully branded Web3 iGaming platform in under 5 minutes. AI technology handles the creation and backend operations automatically – partners focus entirely on growth, community, and traffic.
The results speak for themselves: 3,300+ active bosses operating globally, 500+ new platforms launching every week, and over $2.4M paid out to partners – with more than $700K distributed directly in $GCOIN. Each boss is an ambassador. Each platform is a distribution channel, each new operator expands the reach and utility of $GCOIN across every corner of the world.
Token Strength Built on Fundamentals
$GCOIN currently has a market capitalization of approximately $49.6M with five exchange listings still ahead this month. With over 1.26B $GCOIN staked across four staking pools, and a 164M token reward treasury, the staking ecosystem alone reflects deep, long-term conviction from the community.
$GCOIN is already live and actively traded on MEXC and a DEX within the Playnance ecosystem- with real volume, real users, and real ecosystem activity behind it. Today’s listing on WEEX marks the beginning of an aggressive June expansion, as five major exchange listings roll out to scale global accessibility and cement $GCOIN’s position as the leading utility token of the on-chain iGaming industry.
Coming soon: Vertical Staking Pools – a major evolution that will allow $GCOIN holders to stake directly into the specific verticals they believe in most, whether Casino, Sports, Prediction, or Trading – with rewards tied directly to each vertical’s activity.
Infrastructure That Sets the Standard
Built on a proprietary high-performance blockchain – gasless, instant, and fully scalable – the infrastructure delivers real-time settlements, instant on-chain payouts, and non-custodial shared wallet architecture that other platforms simply cannot replicate. It processes over 10,000 casino games, 2.5M live sports and esports events annually, and a growing suite of live products including live casino, live trading, and prediction markets.
”$GCOIN keeps rising because it was built right,” said Pini Peter, CEO of Playnance. “We built a protocol where every single interaction – every game, every platform, every partner – creates genuine utility for the token. The global iGaming industry is moving on-chain, and Playnance is not waiting for that future – we are building it. WEEX is one more milestone in a journey that is just getting started.”
About Playnance
Founded in 2020, Playnance is a Web3 iGaming infrastructure company developing live, non-custodial, on-chain products designed to onboard mainstream Web2 users into blockchain environments. The company builds consumer-facing platforms powered by shared wallet systems and high-volume on-chain execution, currently processing approximately 2 million transactions per day. Playnance focuses on removing friction between user experience and blockchain infrastructure by abstracting complexity while maintaining full on-chain transparency and non-custodial architecture.
The post $GCOIN Lists on WEEX: Five Exchanges This June as Real Utility Drives Global Expansion appeared first on CryptoPotato.
STRC, a dividend-paying preferred stock that Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) founder Michael Saylor has outrageously promoted as a competitor to high-yield bank accounts, traded 5.3% below its par value at one point today.
Multiple crypto derivatives of STRC are mirroring the crash.
No US bank account or money market is allowed to lose money like that, and such customers would enjoy FDIC and SIPC protection against loss, anyway.
Unfortunately, STRC has no insurance. Nor does Strategy guarantee its price or dividends. As of writing time, STRC and its unauthorised crypto proxies remain about 4% below their formerly stable trading range.
Despite its incredible risks, STRC has grown to a market capitalisation of $10 billion, more than triple its size at the start of the year.
It grew for one reason. Backed by a company holding tens of billions of dollars worth of bitcoin (BTC), STRC pays an annualized dividend rate of 11.5% — far higher than traditional USD savings products.
Its promoters, like Saylor, CEO Phong Le, and a legion of others online, repeatedly insinuated that Strategy would pay dividends while STRC traded near $100, its quasi-peg that has nonetheless repeatedly failed to hold — including another panic this week.
Although Strategy will pay a monthly dividend of 0.96% on the full $100 par value of STRC this month, its stock price has already lost 3.8% of its value this month as of writing time, including a momentary loss of -5.3% intraday.
Read more: STRC controversy goes mainstream
STRC-backed stablecoins de-peg
As STRC has grown in size and popularity, crypto proxies proliferated for DeFi traders to buy, sell, leverage, loop, and borrow STRC-like products outside of the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Today, protocols like Apyx and Saturn offer derivatives partially backed by STRC. Enjoying demand for STRC’s generous dividends and supposed stability in a crypto-native wrapper, these protocols created stablecoins like apxUSD and Saturn sUSDat that traded near $1 with alluring stability for months.
This week, they’re mirroring the crash in STRC. Saturn sUSDat, with a market cap near $100 million, is trading 3.7% lower this week. Apxy’s stablecoin partially backed by STRC, apxUSD, has lost 4.1% of its value this week.
The collapse has Saylor to blame, as well as another factor beyond his control. First, Saylor decided this week to renege on years of promises to never sell BTC, the asset that underpins his entire strategy, including STRC, by having Strategy voluntarily sell BTC for the first time since 2022.
Second, within 24 hours after the relatively small sale, BTC plunged 4.4%. Worse, it kept crashing. Over the past week, BTC has crashed 12%, and Strategy’s common stock is down 15%.
Saylor spent three years insisting that nobody should sell BTC, including himself, but even he probably couldn’t have predicted that reversing his stance would precede such an immediately devastating crash.
STRC crashes alongside Strategy and its BTC
Despite ads that liken STRC and its DeFi proxies to a low-volatility savings product with above-average yield, its quick decline this week demonstrates its broadly misunderstood risks.
Following the wider downward trend in crypto, STRC isn’t only dragging confidence in Strategy with it, but also a small cluster of crypto tokens.
Wrapping a wobbling dividend and a volatile stock inside a synthetic stablecoin was a clever idea, but it only proves that stablecoins are, despite their namesake, often unstable.
Between May 26 and May 31, Strategy sold 32 BTC for roughly $2.5 million. It was the company’s first sale since December 2022, and the first net reduction in a stash that it had built to over 843,700 coins.
In its securities filing, the company noted that “proceeds from the BTC sales are expected to be used to fund distributions on preferred stock.”
On Strategy’s Q1 earnings call last month, Saylor said the company would “probably sell some BTC to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market.”
STRC launched in July 2025 paying 9%. Strategy has since raised the rate seven times, to 11.50%. The high payouts exist because the stock keeps slipping below the $100 share price Strategy promises to defend.
During STRC’s worst trading day in November 2025, shares hit $90.52.
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