Crypto World
Why the price keeps falling
Spot Solana ETFs crossed $1.06 billion in total assets under management as of mid-May 2026. Goldman Sachs is a confirmed holder.
Summary
- Solana ETFs crossed $1.06B in AUM, but SOL remains 77% below its January 2025 all-time high.
- ETF inflows are being absorbed by venture unlock supply, limiting the price impact of institutional buying.
- BSOL’s staking structure gives institutions yield while they wait for Solana’s major catalysts to mature.
- Western Union’s USDPT launch may be Solana’s biggest institutional signal if payment volume scales.
Fidelity runs its own validator. Morgan Stanley’s Solana Trust filing adds a third institutional channel. Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FORD) holds 6.9 million SOL on its corporate treasury. The catalyst stack is the cleanest of any top-five major: $1B+ in institutional AUM, Firedancer hitting 1M TPS in load tests, the Alpenglow upgrade coming in Q2 2026, 700+ days of continuous network uptime. And yet SOL is down 77 percent from its January 2025 high of $295. Daily active users have dropped from 6.4 million to 2.8 million.
Bank of America trimmed its Solana ETF exposure on May 23, 2026. The institutional money is flowing in. The price keeps falling. This is the paradox most coverage refuses to engage with honestly.
The numbers that should be moving the price
The institutional story for Solana in 2026 is, on paper, as strong as any altcoin has ever produced.
Spot Solana ETFs from Bitwise (BSOL), Fidelity (FSOL), and Grayscale launched in late 2025 and have accumulated $1.06 billion in combined assets under management by mid-May 2026. The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) leads with approximately $861 million, representing 81 percent of the total inflows. Fidelity’s FSOL has captured roughly $160 million. The remaining capital is spread across smaller products including Grayscale’s converted Solana Trust.
The pace of accumulation has been notable. BSOL crossed $500 million in AUM within its first 18 days of trading, which is faster than most prior altcoin ETF launches. The May 12, 2026 weekly inflow print of $39.23 million was the strongest since February, suggesting the institutional appetite is not just real but still building. Goldman Sachs has been confirmed as a holder. Fidelity has gone beyond passive exposure to actively run a Solana validator node, signaling deeper institutional commitment than most ETF issuers show.
Beyond ETFs, the corporate treasury adoption story is also significant. Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FORD) has transitioned into a Solana-focused treasury company, holding over 6.9 million SOL valued at roughly $1 billion. The firm launched a $1 billion share repurchase program and runs its own Solana validator. This is the kind of corporate treasury adoption that, with Bitcoin specifically, produced substantial price appreciation through the Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) accumulation playbook.
The infrastructure story matches. Firedancer, the independent Solana validator client built by Jump Crypto, has recorded over 1 million transactions per second in public load tests. This is the first time any Layer-1 blockchain has matched centralized exchange throughput in a verified environment. The Alpenglow consensus upgrade arriving in Q2 2026 will cut block finality from 12 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds. Solana now has over 700 days of continuous network uptime, addressing the historical outage concerns that previously hurt institutional confidence.
The regulatory environment is also favorable. Kevin Warsh was sworn in as Federal Reserve Chair on May 23, 2026. Warsh personally holds SOL, which while not a direct policy signal is at least an indication the highest levels of US monetary leadership are personally familiar with the asset. The broader regulatory shift under the current administration has made altcoin ETFs commercially viable in a way they were not under the Gensler-era SEC.
Standard Chartered’s year-end SOL price target is $250. Doo Prime’s upside case is $336. Other models from Changelly project $140 base case. The institutional research consensus is broadly bullish on SOL based on the catalyst stack.
And yet SOL trades at $82 to $96, depending on the day. The token is 77 percent below its January 2025 all-time high of $295. The price has been range-bound for six months between $118 and $165 on the weekly chart, then broke down to the lower trading range in 2026. The institutional buying has not translated into the kind of price appreciation the catalyst stack would predict.
This is the paradox. The fundamentals say one thing. The price says another. Most coverage either celebrates the fundamentals while ignoring the price, or dismisses the fundamentals because the price is weak. The honest analysis requires engaging with both.
The supply absorption problem
The single most important factor most coverage fails to engage with properly is the venture token unlock schedule running through Q3 2026.
When Solana launched in 2020, a substantial portion of the initial token supply was allocated to venture investors, the Solana Labs team, and the Solana Foundation. These allocations vest gradually over multi-year schedules. The vesting cliffs and gradual unlocks create persistent supply pressure as locked tokens enter circulation and venture investors take profits on their early-stage positions.
The unlocks have been ongoing for years, but the pace through 2026 is particularly heavy. Multiple major unlock events scheduled through Q3 2026 will release substantial new SOL supply to the market. A representative example: deBridge’s $8.88 million SOL release was one of several venture unlock events in April 2026. Larger unlocks from the Solana Labs allocation, the Solana Foundation reserve, and various early venture investors continue throughout the year.
The math of supply absorption matters. If the ETF inflows are running at, say, $40 million per week (the May 12 weekly print), and the venture unlocks are releasing $50 to $100 million per week in new supply that vested holders are selling, the ETF buying is being absorbed by the unlock supply rather than producing net upward price pressure. The institutional money is real. It just is not enough yet to overwhelm the structural sell pressure.
This is why Bitcoin’s path is the relevant comparison. Bitcoin’s spot ETFs accumulated approximately $4.6 billion in AUM before BTC broke its previous all-time high. Solana’s ETFs at $1.06 billion are roughly 23 percent of the threshold that produced the Bitcoin breakthrough. The absolute amount of institutional money flowing into SOL is not yet sufficient to absorb the venture unlock pressure AND drive net price appreciation. Both are required for the price to move materially upward, and only one is happening right now.
The timing matters for when this could change. The venture unlock schedule winds down through Q3 2026. As the unlock supply tapers, the same ETF inflow rate would translate into more net buying pressure. If ETF inflows scale up at the same time the unlock supply winds down, the dynamic could flip favorably and produce the price appreciation the catalyst stack would predict. This is the path Standard Chartered’s $250 year-end target implicitly assumes.
The alternative outcome is ETF inflows stall or reverse before the unlock supply clears. If institutional appetite slows (as the May 23 Bank of America move suggests is possible), the supply pressure keeps going without the offsetting institutional demand. In that scenario, SOL could stay range-bound or break lower toward the $72 to $80 support levels that several technical analysts have identified.
Either outcome is plausible. The variable that determines which way the market goes is the interaction between ETF inflows and unlock supply through Q3 2026. This is the analytical work most coverage skips.
What BSOL’s structure actually does
One specific feature of the BSOL ETF deserves more attention than it gets in most coverage. BSOL is not a pure spot Solana ETF. It is a staking ETF, which means the assets held by the fund are staked on the Solana network and earn staking rewards on behalf of fund holders.
The embedded staking yield is approximately 7 percent annually. This is a meaningful number for institutional holders. A pension fund holding $50 million in BSOL is earning $3.5 million per year in staking yield while waiting for the price to move. The carry is real cash flow that exists independent of whether the price appreciates or declines.
This changes the institutional calculus around BSOL holdings in important ways. Pure spot ETFs like the Bitcoin products require price appreciation to generate returns for holders. BSOL produces returns from both potential price appreciation AND ongoing staking yield. This makes the position more defensible during periods of price weakness, because the holder is still earning carry.
The implication is BSOL holders are more likely to keep positions through unlock-driven price weakness than pure spot ETF holders would. They are not waiting for an immediate price catalyst. They are earning yield while waiting. This patience matters for the supply absorption dynamic. If BSOL holders do not panic-sell when price weakness persists, the institutional capital stays in the system and gradually compounds through the staking rewards.
The 7 percent staking yield also reframes the discussion about Solana’s “inflation” problem that bearish commentary often raises. Solana’s current annual issuance rate is approximately 4.7 percent, declining gradually toward a terminal rate around 1.5 percent. For staked SOL holders, the staking rewards more than offset the inflation rate. For non-staked holders, the inflation dilutes their position. BSOL automatically stakes its holdings, so the inflation concern does not apply to ETF holders in the same way it applies to holders who keep SOL on exchanges or in self-custody wallets without staking.
This is the technical detail most retail-focused coverage misses entirely. BSOL is structurally different from spot Bitcoin ETFs in ways that make institutional patience more rational. The fund is generating real yield while waiting for the price recovery the catalyst stack would predict.
The Western Union signal nobody is properly weighting
The most consequential institutional development for Solana in 2026 may not be the ETFs at all. It may be Western Union’s USDPT launch on the Solana network on May 4, 2026.
Western Union is 175 years old. The company processes more than 100 million customer transactions across over 200 countries and territories through a network of 360,000+ agent locations. The remittance market it serves is approximately $700 billion globally. The company chose Solana as the blockchain infrastructure for its USDPT stablecoin and broader Digital Asset Network strategy.
The choice of Solana over Ethereum, Tron (the dominant USDT network for cross-border transfers), or other Layer-1 alternatives is significant. Western Union is not a crypto-native company looking to ride a speculative wave. The company is a regulated financial institution selecting blockchain infrastructure for production payment rails serving 100 million users. The choice reflects a technical and operational assessment about which network can actually support that scale of activity.
USDPT is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the only federally chartered crypto bank in the United States that has reached fully operational status (most others, including Ripple, are still in the conditional approval phase). The combination of Anchorage as issuer and Solana as the underlying blockchain creates an institutional-grade stablecoin stack that competes directly with USDC, USDT, and RLUSD.
The product rollout extends beyond the initial settlement use case. Stable by Western Union, a consumer-facing spending product, is launching in over 40 countries in 2026. The USD Stable Card targets high-inflation regions where people need access to dollar-denominated payment infrastructure. The Digital Asset Network connects external crypto wallets to Western Union’s 360,000-agent cash-out network, enabling crypto-to-cash transactions through existing physical infrastructure.
What this means for SOL specifically is Solana is being positioned as the underlying blockchain infrastructure for one of the largest payment networks in the world. The transaction volume that flows through USDPT will generate SOL fees, support validator economics, and create persistent demand for SOL as a gas token. This is fundamentally different from the speculative trading volume that has driven much of Solana’s historical fee generation.
The Western Union story has not been adequately reflected in SOL’s price. The launch was treated as a routine product announcement by most coverage. The structural implication is one of the largest financial institutions in the world has bet on Solana as its blockchain infrastructure for a global payments product. If USDPT achieves even modest adoption (say, 10 percent of Western Union’s existing transaction volume migrating to the stablecoin rail), the impact on SOL fee generation and demand would be material.
The market has not priced this in. The opportunity, if you believe the Western Union deployment will succeed, is in the gap between the structural significance and the current price.
The memecoin question that nobody wants to address
A complete analysis of Solana’s situation has to engage with the question that sophisticated observers are asking quietly but that most public coverage avoids.
Solana’s transaction volume is heavily dominated by memecoin trading and speculative activity. The network’s daily active user count has dropped from 6.4 million at peak to approximately 2.8 million currently. dApp revenue has declined materially as the 2024-2025 memecoin trading cycle has cooled. The DAU drop is real, the dApp revenue compression is real, and the question is whether Solana’s underlying transaction economics are sustainable if the speculative activity keeps unwinding.
The honest answer is mixed. On one hand, memecoin-driven transaction volume is genuinely speculative and could decline substantially if the broader memecoin cycle reverses. If that happens, Solana’s fee generation, validator economics, and network revenue would all face pressure. The bears who point to “Solana is a casino” framing are not entirely wrong. A meaningful portion of historical Solana activity has been speculative.
On the other hand, the institutional adoption pipeline (Western Union, Anchorage, Forward Industries, the ETF complex, AAVE’s recent deployment) represents a structurally different category of activity. If this pipeline scales, it replaces speculative transaction volume with utility-driven transaction volume, which would be more sustainable and less correlated with crypto market sentiment cycles.
The transition is the variable. If the institutional pipeline scales faster than the speculative volume declines, Solana’s network economics improve over time and the price eventually reflects the structural improvement. If the speculative volume declines faster than the institutional pipeline scales, Solana faces a period of weak network economics and continued price pressure.
Neither outcome is guaranteed. The realistic case is probably somewhere between: gradual institutional adoption, gradual speculative volume decline, and a period of network economic transition that takes 18 to 36 months to fully play out. The current price weakness may reflect the market pricing in this transition uncertainty rather than rejecting Solana’s long-term positioning.
This is the analysis crypto media generally avoids because it requires holding two contradictory truths simultaneously. Solana’s institutional adoption is genuinely speeding up. Solana’s speculative transaction volume is genuinely declining. Both are happening at the same time. The net effect depends on how the transition plays out, and reasonable analysts can disagree about the trajectory.
What the recent ETF flow patterns actually show
Looking at the ETF flow data more carefully reveals patterns that complicate the simple “institutional buying” narrative.
The cumulative inflow story is unambiguously positive. $1.06 billion in AUM across spot Solana ETFs by mid-May 2026. BSOL leading with $861 million. Consistent net inflows during most weeks. The directional trajectory is clearly upward.
But the week-to-week pattern shows the institutional flow is not uniform. The April 1, 2026 trading session recorded net inflows of zero across spot Solana ETFs. The April flows totaled approximately $222.49 million, which is meaningful but not the kind of sustained momentum that would absorb venture unlock supply. The May 12 weekly print of $39.23 million was the strongest since February, but it represented a recovery rather than a continuation of an established trend.
The Bank of America move on May 23, 2026 is the most concerning recent signal. The bank increased its Bitcoin ETF stake while cutting Solana-linked holdings, signaling measured institutional risk appetite. This is the kind of selective rebalancing that suggests some institutions are concluding that the SOL ETF pipeline is not delivering returns at the pace they expected.
The honest read on the flow patterns is the institutional commitment is real but not yet sustained at a level that overwhelms the structural sell pressure. The capital is flowing in. It is also flowing out, periodically, when institutions reassess their allocations. The net inflow is positive but the volatility is meaningful.
For the price to move materially upward, the flow pattern needs to shift from the current “inflows with occasional outflows” to “sustained inflows with rising momentum.” That shift requires either a clear positive catalyst (Firedancer mainnet, Alpenglow launch, Western Union scaling) or the broader crypto market entering a risk-on environment that pulls altcoin ETFs along with it.
Neither is guaranteed in the near term. The base case is probably more weeks of $20-40 million in net inflows, partially offset by unlock supply, with the price oscillating in the $80-100 range until either the unlock schedule clears or a new catalyst emerges.
What could change the dynamic
Three specific catalysts could shift Solana’s price trajectory upward in the next 6-12 months, and each is worth understanding.
The first is Firedancer mainnet deployment reaching meaningful adoption. The validator client currently runs on 207 validators in production. If Firedancer adoption scales to 30 to 50 percent of total stake, the network’s throughput and reliability improve substantially, which strengthens the institutional case for Solana as settlement infrastructure. The full mainnet rollout is scheduled for H2 2026. If it ships on schedule and adoption follows, this is one of the strongest potential price catalysts.
The second is the Alpenglow consensus upgrade. Cutting block finality from 12 seconds to 150 milliseconds is genuinely transformative for institutional settlement applications. The 150ms finality matches what traditional finance infrastructure delivers, which removes one of the main technical objections institutional buyers have raised about crypto settlement. Anatoly Yakovenko called Alpenglow “the missing piece for institutional settlement.” The Q2 2026 launch window is the next major catalyst on the calendar.
The third is Western Union scaling USDPT volume. If Stable by Western Union launches in the 40+ countries on schedule and captures even modest adoption, the resulting transaction volume on Solana would be material. The 100 million existing Western Union users represent a customer base larger than most crypto platforms have. Even 5 to 10 percent adoption of USDPT for existing Western Union flows would produce SOL transaction volume that exceeds most current DeFi protocols on the network.
If all three catalysts deliver in the second half of 2026 and the venture unlock schedule winds down on the expected timeline, the conditions exist for Standard Chartered’s $250 year-end target to be achievable. If one or more catalysts disappoint or delay, the price could stay in the current consolidation range or move lower.
The risk-adjusted case is probably one or two of the catalysts deliver while the third disappoints or delays. In that scenario, SOL likely moves into the $120-180 range, which would represent meaningful appreciation from current levels without reaching the bullish case targets.
What this means for SOL holders right now
For readers holding SOL or considering positions, the practical implications of the paradox analysis are straightforward.
The institutional adoption story is real and keeps developing. ETFs are accumulating. Western Union is deploying. Firedancer is shipping. The structural improvements in Solana’s positioning are not narrative fluff. They are operational realities that will, over time, support SOL’s price if the catalysts deliver and the unlock supply clears.
The price weakness is also real and reflects specific structural factors (venture unlock supply absorption) not yet fully resolved. The current $82-96 trading range is not random. It reflects the balance between institutional demand and unlock-driven selling pressure. Until that balance shifts, the price has limited room to move materially upward.
For long-term holders, this is consistent with the kind of accumulation phase that has preceded major crypto bull runs historically. Bitcoin spent extended periods range-bound while ETF inflows accumulated before breaking out. Ethereum had similar patterns. Solana’s current consolidation could follow a similar trajectory if the catalysts deliver and ETF flows keep coming.
For traders, the technical levels matter. The $72-80 support has held through multiple retests, and a break below that level would suggest the supply pressure is overwhelming the institutional demand. The $92-96 resistance has been the immediate test for upside momentum. A clean break above $96 with rising ETF flows would suggest the dynamic is shifting in SOL’s favor. A break below $72 would suggest the bears are right that institutional demand cannot absorb the supply pressure.
For institutional investors specifically, BSOL’s 7 percent staking yield provides ongoing carry while waiting for the price recovery. This is structurally more attractive than holding pure spot Bitcoin or Ethereum positions during similar consolidation periods, because the yield generates returns independent of price action.
The bottom line
Solana’s situation in mid-2026 is genuinely complicated and most coverage simplifies it in ways that are not useful.
The bullish narrative is real. $1.06 billion in spot ETF AUM. Goldman Sachs as a confirmed BSOL holder. Fidelity running its own validator. Forward Industries holding $1 billion in SOL on corporate treasury. Western Union launching USDPT on Solana with 100 million users. Firedancer hitting 1M TPS. Alpenglow arriving in Q2 2026 with 150ms finality. 700+ days of continuous uptime. The catalyst stack is the cleanest of any top-five major cryptocurrency.
The bearish reality is also real. 77 percent drawdown from the January 2025 all-time high. Range-bound between $80 and $100 for months. Daily active users down from 6.4 million to 2.8 million. dApp revenue declining as speculative volume cools. Venture token unlock supply absorbing institutional demand. Bank of America trimming SOL ETF exposure on May 23, 2026.
Both can be true at the same time. The structural improvements are happening. The supply absorption problem is also happening. The net effect depends on which dynamic wins over the next 12 to 18 months.
The honest read is SOL is in an accumulation phase where institutional capital is gradually flowing in while structural supply pressure keeps the price range-bound. If the catalysts deliver (Firedancer, Alpenglow, Western Union scaling), the supply pressure clears (Q3 2026 unlock schedule), and ETF inflows keep scaling, the conditions exist for the price to move materially upward toward the $140-250 range that institutional research targets.
If any of those conditions fail to materialize, SOL could stay range-bound for an extended period or move lower toward the $72 support level. The bearish case is not unreasonable. The bullish case is not unreasonable. The honest case is uncertainty, with the resolution likely coming over the next 12 months.
For SOL holders, the paradox analysis suggests patience rather than panic. The fundamentals are improving. The price is reflecting structural sell pressure that has a defined timeline. The institutional adoption pipeline is real. The question is whether the timeline of institutional buying meets or exceeds the timeline of unlock-driven selling.
For SOL skeptics, the paradox analysis suggests caution rather than dismissal. The institutional adoption is not fake. The catalyst stack is real. The price weakness reflects specific structural factors rather than fundamental rejection of the network. Dismissing Solana because the price is weak ignores the institutional pipeline genuinely developing.
The honest framing is Solana is in a transition period where the old speculative model (memecoin-driven transaction volume) is partially giving way to a new institutional model (ETFs, Western Union, corporate treasuries, regulated stablecoins). The transition is not yet complete. The price reflects the uncertainty about how it resolves.
That is the paradox. $1 billion in ETF AUM. 77 percent drawdown. Real institutional adoption. Real structural sell pressure. Two genuine truths producing one frustrating price chart.
The resolution will come. The question is when, and which side wins when it does.
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets evolve quickly; the figures and milestones described reflect reporting available as of late May 2026. Always do your own research.
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CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1682.86, up 0.5% (+8.62) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Fifteen of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: AAVE (+5.9%) and ICP (+2%).
Laggards: XLM (-1.4%) and ADA (-1.2%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
Stablecoins are no longer a fringe market. Their total supply has exceeded $300 billion, and USDT₮, the largest stablecoin, briefly overtook Ethereum by market capitalization to become the second-largest digital asset behind bitcoin. Banks are right to pay attention.
But paying attention is different from pressuring Congress to slow the market down.
Stablecoins create new competition around payments, settlement, float, and customer relationships. Some of that competition will be uncomfortable for banks. It should be. Financial technology does not move forward only when incumbents are comfortable.
That does not make stablecoins a systemic threat to community banking.
There is a precedent for this. Over the last decade, fintech companies embedded banking features into consumer apps, business platforms, payroll tools, lending products, and payment systems. Many did so through bank partners. That changed how customers interacted with financial services. It created new competition. It pushed banks to modernize. But it did not wipe out community banking.
Fintech applications like PayPal and Stripe have popularized digital banking and built large user bases since their emergence. However, banks have never treated fintech as a threat, but rather as an opportunity to expand their offerings and improve user experiences through collaborations and integrations. Looking at the numbers alone, SoFi, the largest publicly traded fintech bank, had $37.5 billion in total deposits in the last quarter of 2025, accounting for less than 0.2% of the US bank’s $20 trillion deposit base. If fintech was never a threat, why treat stablecoins differently?
Crypto World
Bitcoin just broke below the floor of its famous Rainbow Chart into the ‘BTC is dead’ zone
Bitcoin peaked at $126,000 in October without reaching the Rainbow Chart’s upper red bands. Now, with BTC near $62,500, the price has fallen below the chart’s floor.
The divergence comes as other widely followed bitcoin valuation models have also struggled. The Stock-to-Flow model, which links bitcoin’s price to its programmed supply reductions, projected significantly higher prices following the 2024 halving than bitcoin ultimately achieved.
Mark Zalan, CEO of GoMining, agreed that the bottom band does not indicate a permanent collapse.
Bitcoin dead zone
“The ‘Bitcoin is Dead’ zone doesn’t mean Bitcoin is actually dead,” Zalan told CoinDesk. “Historically, it has often marked periods of extreme fear and undervaluation, which were later followed by recoveries. It signals sentiment more than certainty.”
Zalan said the chart remains useful, but “less precise than it once was.”
“The 2025 cycle showed that BTC doesn’t have to follow old patterns exactly,” Zalan said. “ETFs, institutions and changing market structure have altered the game.”
Bitcoin is trading near its April 2024 halving price, a development that runs counter to expectations for the current four-year cycle.
Levin said the chart confirms what the “cycle data has been showing us, the exponential growth assumptions baked into this chart were calibrated to a retail-driven, illiquid asset, not a $1.25 trillion market with ETF flows and institutional balance sheets setting the marginal price.”
- World expands AgentKit for verified AI agents using World ID.
- AI agents can act online on behalf of verified human users.
- System aims to prevent bots while enabling trusted automation.
World is expanding access to AgentKit, its framework designed to create human-verified AI agents and allow individuals to connect those agents to a verified World ID.
The system enables AI agents to act on behalf of users across the internet while maintaining identity verification through World’s network.
The development comes as AI agents become increasingly capable of performing online tasks such as shopping, making reservations, navigating websites, and interacting with digital services.
This growing capability has created a challenge for businesses in distinguishing between agents representing real users and automated bot networks.
AgentKit is positioned as a response to that issue by linking AI agents directly to World ID, allowing websites and applications to verify when an agent is acting on behalf of a unique human.
The framework is designed to support task delegation while maintaining safeguards tied to identity verification and user control.
How AgentKit links AI agents to verified identity
To begin using AgentKit, individuals require a verified World ID, access to World App, and a supported AI agent, including tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Hermes, or OpenClaw.
Users connect their proof of human through World’s ToolRouter interface, generate an API key, and link their AI agent within minutes.
Once connected, the agent can interact with services that support AgentKit and perform tasks on behalf of the user.
The system is designed to allow individuals to delegate digital tasks to AI agents while preserving controls tied to verified identity.
According to the framework description, this structure is intended to ensure that AI activity remains attributable to a real human user rather than anonymous or automated systems.
Demo shows real-world use case
The technology was recently demonstrated through a limited-edition release of 500 “Human in the Loop” hats available exclusively to verified World ID holders.
During the demonstration, AI agents discovered the drop, verified eligibility, navigated the storefront, and completed purchases on behalf of users while maintaining one-item-per-person limits tied to verified identities.
All 500 hats were claimed by verified individuals across multiple countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
The demonstration was used to show how AI agents can execute real-world transactions while preserving identity-based constraints designed to limit abuse.
The example highlighted how businesses could allow AI agents to complete tasks on behalf of users while still preventing exploitation by bot networks.
Building a trust layer for the agent economy
As more services integrate AgentKit, World aims to create what it describes as a trust layer for an emerging agent economy.
The goal is to enable AI agents to transact and interact online while remaining accountable to the humans they represent.
The system is intended to support a growing range of use cases where AI agents operate autonomously but within a framework of verified identity and user authorization.
This includes both commercial applications and broader digital service interactions.
The World project was originally conceived by Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania, and aims to provide proof of human, finance and connection for every human in the age of AI.
The company says AgentKit is part of its broader effort to support identity verification in an environment where AI agents are becoming increasingly capable of acting independently across online platforms.
Key Highlights
- Shares reached a 52-week peak of $76.56, gaining 2.32% in Tuesday’s session with a $7.28 billion market valuation
- Year-over-year gains stand at 40.32%, with a 31.8% increase recorded over the last six months
- Truist Securities maintains its Buy recommendation with an $85 target, highlighting robust marketplace trends continuing into mid-June
- First-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue exceeded expectations by approximately 3%, while adjusted EBITDA surpassed forecasts by roughly 5%
- The company upgraded its fiscal 2026 GMS growth forecast to low single-digit territory; divesting Depop is anticipated to enhance strategic concentration on the primary platform
Shares of Etsy (ETSY) climbed to a 52-week peak of $76.56 during Tuesday’s trading session on June 24, closing at $76.65 — representing a 2.32% intraday gain. The performance extends the stock’s impressive year-over-year advance of 40.32%.
The company’s market capitalization currently stands at $7.28 billion, with InvestingPro data indicating the shares remain undervalued at current price levels.
The rally coincides with an increasing chorus of optimistic analyst commentary. On June 23, Truist Securities reaffirmed its Buy stance alongside an $85 price objective, highlighting better-than-anticipated sales momentum extending through mid-June.
According to Truist’s examination of payment card transaction data covering the period through June 16, sales performance for the quarter-to-date period is outpacing initial projections. The primary marketplace — when Depop is excluded from calculations — is demonstrating recovery signals in both active buyer counts and gross merchandise sales volumes.
Truist projects that core Etsy marketplace GMS will expand in the mid-single-digit percentage territory on a year-over-year basis during Q2 2026. This would represent the second-strongest growth rate recorded since the pandemic era.
The investment firm attributes the acceleration to enhancements in search functionality, artificial intelligence-driven product discovery features, improved marketing return on investment, and increased mobile application engagement.
First Quarter Performance Exceeds Expectations
Etsy’s fiscal Q1 2026 financial results surpassed both internal company forecasts and Wall Street consensus estimates. Top-line revenue came in approximately 3% above expectations, while adjusted EBITDA exceeded projections by around 5%.
In response to these results, Guggenheim increased its price objective to $85 while maintaining its Buy recommendation. JPMorgan similarly raised its target to $75, characterizing the quarter as the first significant expansion in Etsy Marketplace GMS since the third quarter of 2023.
Argus took an even more decisive stance, elevating its rating from Hold to Buy. The research firm highlighted progress in active buyer metrics and GMS per active buyer statistics, which it linked to the company’s investments in personalization technologies and machine learning capabilities.
Following the first-quarter performance, Etsy management elevated its full-year fiscal 2026 GMS growth guidance to low single-digit percentage growth.
Strategic Divestiture of Depop Expected to Enhance Focus
The upcoming divestiture of Depop represents another significant development in Etsy’s strategic narrative. Company leadership intends to leverage this transaction to concentrate resources and attention on the core marketplace business.
The transaction is also projected to generate liquidity that could fund expanded share repurchase initiatives. According to InvestingPro metrics, management has already demonstrated a commitment to aggressive stock buyback programs.
Etsy’s PEG ratio currently registers at 0.46, indicating shares are trading at an attractive price-to-earnings valuation when normalized for projected growth rates. The company maintains gross profit margins of 71.6%.
During the 2026 Annual Meeting, shareholders approved the appointment of three Class II board members — M. Michele Burns, Josh Silverman, and Fred Wilson — who will serve three-year terms concluding at the 2029 annual gathering.
Truist continues to hold an optimistic perspective on Etsy’s trajectory as the quarter approaches its conclusion, with shares now trading at their strongest level over the past twelve months.
Crypto World
Nokia (NOK) Stock Climbs 1.88% Following Dual Partnership Announcements with Databricks and AWS
Key Highlights
- Nokia and Databricks successfully validated a cloud-neutral data platform designed for autonomous telecommunications networks through a proof of concept.
- The solution enables telecom carriers to implement real-time data analytics one time and execute them across multiple cloud environments without code modification.
- Simultaneously, Nokia revealed deeper integration with AWS, bringing its Autonomous Networks Fabric to Amazon’s cloud services.
- The company currently trades beneath InvestingPro’s Fair Value calculation and posted $23.1 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue with gross margins reaching 45%.
- Shares of NOK climbed 1.88% following the dual announcements.
Shares of Nokia (NOK) advanced 1.88% to reach $12.225 during Tuesday’s trading session after the telecommunications equipment manufacturer unveiled two significant strategic partnerships within hours of each other — collaborations with both Databricks and Amazon Web Services (AMZN).
The initial announcement centered on Databricks. Nokia partnered with the data and analytics specialist to successfully demonstrate a consolidated data infrastructure designed to power AI-enabled autonomous telecommunications operations.
The objective addresses a specific industry challenge: telecommunications providers typically maintain hundreds of disconnected operational and business support systems, each operating with isolated data architectures. The proof of concept validated that these disparate systems can be integrated without forcing carriers into exclusive relationships with single cloud providers.
Technical teams from both organizations conducted a real-time performance management test simulating tier-1 operator network conditions. They constructed data pipelines a single time and executed them across various platforms — eliminating the need for code rewrites.
Identical workflows functioned on both the Databricks infrastructure and an open-source technology stack incorporating Apache Flink, Kafka, and Iceberg, supporting real-time data streaming, batch operations, and query-based data products.
Nokia’s development team created transformation logic utilizing cloud-neutral Python code. A specialized compiler then automatically converted this logic into platform-specific formats — Delta Live Tables for Databricks environments, or Flink SQL for open-source implementations.
The technical validation also showcased AI-driven data product generation capabilities, where an intelligent system can produce new data products through natural language instructions, verify requirements, and autonomously deploy data pipelines.
“Collaborating with Databricks marks a significant milestone in our journey to establish the data infrastructure necessary for next-generation autonomous telecommunications networks,” stated Oguz Sunay, CTO of AI and Autonomous Networks at Nokia.
Nevash Pillay, Global Head of Telecommunications Industry at Databricks, noted that the unified infrastructure helps streamline operations and enable AI capabilities across network functions.
Nokia Strengthens AWS Partnership for Autonomous Networks
Later the same day, Nokia and AWS disclosed an expansion of their current partnership. The companies announced that Nokia’s Autonomous Networks Fabric will operate on AWS infrastructure, providing telecommunications carriers with AI capabilities and cloud resources required for achieving what the industry defines as Level 4 network autonomy.
The expanded AWS agreement builds upon Nokia’s existing portfolio of digital operations applications already deployed on the platform, including orchestration, network assurance, and unified inventory management. General availability is anticipated before year-end.
Nokia generated $23.1 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue with gross profit margins of 45%. Top-line revenue expanded 4.3%, while analysts project net income growth for the current fiscal period.
Financial Performance and Valuation Metrics
InvestingPro currently includes NOK among its Most Undervalued stocks selection, with shares trading at levels below the platform’s Fair Value calculation. The telecommunications company maintains a FAIR financial health score.
Beyond the data platform developments, Nokia has announced multiple strategic initiatives. The company revealed plans to expand its advanced testing and packaging facilities in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which will approximately double its local employee count. Nokia Defense recently formed a partnership with KNDS to deliver 5G connectivity solutions for armored military platforms, and introduced a modular 5G system with Lockheed Martin targeting U.S. and allied military applications.
Nokia’s Autonomous Networks Fabric running on AWS infrastructure is scheduled for commercial availability to telecommunications operators in the latter part of this year.
Crypto World
Bitcoin (BTC) price could fall to $55,000 to find a bottom in August-October, 10x Research says
Bitcoin likely has further downside ahead before the current bear market runs its course, according to 10x Research founder Markus Thielen.
Thielen’s call centers on the recent strength of the U.S. dollar, which historically acts as a headwind for bitcoin. The outlook has been reinforced by the Federal Reserve’s hawkish turn under new Chair Kevin Warsh. Markets are increasingly debating whether the Fed’s next move could be a rate hike rather than a cut, a backdrop that has supported the dollar and weighed on assets.
Still, Thielen doesn’t expect the downturn to last indefinitely.
Three separate indicators — global liquidity trends, the macro calendar and bitcoin’s seasonal patterns — all point to a potential market low between late August and October.
One model tracking the rate of change in global liquidity, which Thielen said correctly identified a buying opportunity in March and an exit signal in April, points to late August as the next key inflection date. Seasonal patterns also suggest September has historically been a weak month for bitcoin, often followed by stronger performance in October.
Meta is reportedly developing a prediction markets app that it’s calling Arena, which would allow users to place bets on real-world outcomes with points rather than actual money.
The app would be separate from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, the New York Times says, and Meta plans to grow it by channeling its existing social audience to the new product.
Arena App Details
In a June 23 exclusive, the NYT, citing sources with knowledge of the project, said that while Arena was experimental, it is a top priority for Mark Zuckerberg. If it comes to fruition, it would not require users to wager real money, at least initially, with a video game-style points system being the likely starting model. However, the sources did not rule out real-money betting for a later stage.
The app is one of several standalones that Meta is developing, with another called Meta Photos that uses AI to generate new types of media also in the pipeline. This push toward standalone apps reflects a bigger problem for the multinational tech company, as Facebook and Instagram have shifted heavily toward video, leaving fewer spaces inside those platforms to test new product ideas, thus forcing Meta to look outward.
It isn’t the first time Zuckerberg is dabbling with prediction markets. In 2020, his company released Forecast, a crowdsourced prediction market app built around the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic that used almost the same points-based structure. However, it shut down in 2022.
Meta has also been chasing emerging social trends with varying results in the last few years, including copying features from Snapchat and TikTok with mixed outcomes, as well as producing apps around podcasts, travel, and matchmaking that largely went nowhere.
The timing feels different now, though, with prediction markets growing at a pace that’s hard to ignore, with Kalshi and Polymarket combining for $51 billion in trades in 2025. That figure is even higher this year, having already hit $130 billion.
Meanwhile, Kalshi completed a $1 billion funding round that valued it at $22 billion, while Polymarket was in talks in April for a $400 million raise at a $15 billion valuation, with Bernstein projecting that by 2030, the total prediction market volumes could hit $1 trillion annually.
A Crowded Field
Meta is not the only company eyeing a slice of the prediction market space, with several crypto companies already getting a head start. In March, Binance added a prediction market functionality to its wallet, while Hyperliquid launched macro prediction markets to its own offerings the following month. Furthermore, Coinbase and Crypto.com also have products in the category, and Trump Media has also announced plans for the same.
However, the sector has also attracted legal heat, with federal prosecutors charging a US Special Forces soldier with using classified information to place bets on Polymarket about a secret plan to capture Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, which netted him $400,000.
There’s also been added scrutiny around data quality and trading behavior on some platforms, with blockchain investigator ZachXBT warning in June that Rain Protocol, a prediction market project valued at close to $9 billion, was showing signs of on-chain price manipulation.
The post Meta Bets on Prediction Markets as It Hunts for Next-Growth Engine (Report) appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) has fallen by about 39% in 2026 so far, declining to just over $70 billion from roughly $115 billion in January.
A Wednesday report from crypto data aggregator CryptoRank attributed the decline to the broader market correction that followed the October 2025 crypto market peak.
After Bitcoin reached a record high above $122,000, a market-wide liquidation event on Oct. 10, 2025, erased more than $19 billion in leveraged positions and accelerated a deleveraging cycle across digital assets.
Despite the decline, CryptoRank noted that the current drawdown remains far smaller than during the 2021-2022 bear market, suggesting a more resilient DeFi market.
DeFi TVL, 1-year chart, monthly. Source: CryptoRank
Fallout from Kelp DAO exploit accelerated the DeFi TVL decline: analyst
CryptoRank said security incidents added another layer of pressure on DeFi in 2026, with 121 hacks and roughly $942 million in losses year-to-date. While exploits were not the primary driver of the decline, the data provider said their frequency likely weighed on user confidence and reinforced capital outflows from DeFi.
According to Nicolai Søndergaard, senior research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, the fallout from the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit on April 18 compressed into days what would otherwise have been weeks of DeFi outflows. Aave users withdrew about $15 billion in deposits in the four days following the exploit.
Related: CryptoQuant warns on Strategy’s dividend coverage as cash reserve falls 38%
The second quarter of 2026 became the most-hacked quarter on record by incident count, with 83 exploits targeting crypto protocols. However, the $755 million stolen during the quarter remained well below the $3.56 billion lost in the fourth quarter of 2020, the costliest quarter for crypto hacks on record.
The falling total value stolen is not due to more robust industry security but a sign that hackers are expanding their attack surface, according to Dmytro Matviiv, CEO of crowdsourced security and bug bounty platform HackenProof. He told Cointelegraph that the lower aggregate losses are “misread as progress,” but only the leading protocols have become harder to exploit, forcing attackers to expand their attack surface.
Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, said that the cyber exploits are making users more cautious, but added that these may also result in capital leaving “weaker” DeFi protocols for those with “stronger venues and clearer yield models,” leading to more industry consolidation.
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