Crypto World
XLM price jumps 8% as Stellar and DTCC partner to bring tokenized securities on-chain
- Stellar and DTCC have partnered to bring tokenized securities on-chain.
- DTCC processed approximately $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year.
- XLM price rose to above $0.16.
Stellar’s native token XLM rose more than 8% after the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to connect its tokenised securities platform to the Stellar blockchain.
The development comes as Bitcoin faces renewed downside pressure, and is being viewed as another sign of growing institutional interest in blockchain infrastructure built for real-world asset tokenisation.
Stellar and DTCC announce tokenization partnership
The DTCC, one of the world’s largest post-trade market infrastructure providers, said it will link its tokenized securities platform to the Stellar network in the first half of 2027.
The partnership targets DTC-custodied assets, including Russell 1000 equities and US Treasuries, bringing large swathes of traditional securities onto-chain.
DTCC processed approximately $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year.
Nadine Chakar, Managing Director and Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets, praised Stellar’s institutional credentials, saying Stellar’s “proven track record with institutional assets onchain is an important factor in our evaluation of blockchain networks. Its emphasis on compliance, transaction throughput, and low-cost operations meets our rigorous standards and will help ensure we’re ready for growth as usage of blockchain networks for real-world asset transactions increases.”
The statement frames the collaboration as a measured step toward scalable, compliant tokenization of mainstream financial instruments.
The arrangement positions Stellar as a candidate for high-volume, regulated token issuance and settlement.
DTCC’s selection criteria, which include compliance features, throughput capacity, and cost-efficiency, mirror the operational demands of institutional markets.
According to market observers, the development could encourage other market infrastructures to explore similar integrations.
“Stellar’s proven compliance-minded architecture, open infrastructure, and risk management capabilities are aligned with market demands and expectations. Our network was built for this moment – we have always believed that blockchain’s utility for finance is to be the rail that institutional-grade markets can depend on,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director, Stellar Development Foundation
XLM price jumps 8%
Stellar price reacted positively to the announcement, with XLM rising roughly 8% to above $0.16.
Gains in the past week now stand at over 13%.

The intraday rally in Stellar (XLM) appeared to be driven in part by speculative flows as Bitcoin rebounded from intraday lows.
The move also points to renewed investor interest in Stellar’s potential role within the institutional tokenisation market.
From a technical standpoint, XLM has broken above a short-term resistance zone near $0.15, an area that previously acted as a swing high.
Holding above this level would reinforce the view that fresh buying pressure is entering the market.
The token has already retested intraday support following the breakout.
A decisive close above the recent resistance zone could open the way toward higher horizontal supply levels.
On the downside, failure to maintain the breakout may see XLM retreat toward key support areas defined by major moving averages, where buyers have previously emerged.
Crypto World
“Ethereum Is a Giver, Not a Taker”: David Hoffman Explains ETH Exit
Bankless co-founder David Hoffman said he sold his Ether holdings because he believes the long-standing “ETH is money” thesis has already largely played out. Despite this, he remains strongly bullish on Ethereum as a network.
According to Hoffman, the decision did not come lightly, given that he built his career, business, community, and identity around Ethereum.
Ethereum Chose the Hard Path Unlike Bitcoin
In his latest tweet, Hoffman stated that the “ETH is money” thesis depended on Ethereum succeeding across multiple layers of coordination, including decentralized leadership, governance, Layer 2 ecosystems, roadmap execution, and technological development.
Hoffman described Ethereum as “not Bitcoin,” and said that Bitcoin simplified its blockchain to maximize the value of BTC, while Ethereum pursued a more ambitious path by expanding utility across decentralized applications, finance, tokenization, and infrastructure. He even went on to add that Ethereum achieved part of that vision and earned the market capitalization it currently has, but said the opportunity for ETH to be significantly rerated higher by the market now appears to be closing.
The Bankless co-founder also explained that the broader “strong version” of crypto, which focused on decentralized finance, NFTs, DAOs, and crypto-native systems, failed to maintain long-term mainstream support outside the 2020 to 2022 period. He said crypto’s reputation later became associated with scams, grifts, and speculative behavior, which ended up weakening the social belief system required for ETH to function as money at a global scale.
He further stated that Ether’s utility increasingly benefits other forms of money, especially stablecoins and tokenized dollars, rather than ETH itself. Hoffman described Ethereum as a “giver, not a taker,” while saying that the network provides secure blockspace, tokenization infrastructure, and DeFi support at minimal cost rather than extracting maximum value for ETH holders. He said Ethereum’s architecture prioritizes applications, rollups, and ecosystem growth over ETH itself, which makes it difficult for the underlying crypto asset to fully achieve global money status without overwhelming market dominance.
Ethereum in Crisis?
Hoffman’s decision also comes at a time when bearish sentiment around Ethereum has been intensifying. A recent report by Santiment found that social media discussions have increasingly shifted from optimism toward frustration and concerns about further downside.
The analytics firm said traders have increasingly viewed ETH as “dead money” compared to stronger-performing crypto assets in 2026, as weakening ETF flows, declining on-chain activity, and growing competition from ecosystems such as Solana and BNB Chain added pressure on sentiment.
Rumors about prominent Ethereum figures reducing or exiting ETH positions, including discussions surrounding Hoffman, have also contributed to rising uncertainty in the market, especially as traders worried about insiders losing confidence in the asset.
The post “Ethereum Is a Giver, Not a Taker”: David Hoffman Explains ETH Exit appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Gold Price is Turning Bearish Fast as Key Support Above $4,300 is Tested
Gold (XAU) is sliding toward the $4,376 support zone as bearish momentum accelerates. The metal broke down from a parallel triangle on May 15 and trades near $4,410 after a 2% daily drop.
Both daily and 4-hour charts flash deepening bearish momentum. Relative strength index readings are pushing into oversold territory, and Bollinger Band Width Percentile expansion confirms the strength of the downtrend.
4-Hour Chart Loses Channel Midline as RSI Hits 27
On the 4-hour timeframe, gold has slipped beneath the midline of a descending parallel channel. Price now trades near the lower band of that structure, just above the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement at $4,376.
The 4-hour relative strength index has fallen to 27, planting the indicator deep inside oversold territory. Meanwhile, Bollinger Band Width Percentile readings have reached extremely volatile zones. That profile often accompanies strong directional continuation rather than reversal.
A reclaim of the $4,609 channel midline would be the first sign that the short-term bearish setup has stalled. Until then, dips into the lower band remain in line with the dominant trend. BeInCrypto flagged the same bearish setup in earlier coverage.
Daily RSI and BBWP Reinforce the Broader Downtrend
The daily timeframe shows a similar bearish structure. However, daily RSI reads 36, well above the 4-hour oversold extreme. That gap leaves room for the higher-timeframe trend to extend without triggering an immediate mean reversion bounce.
BBWP on the daily chart has just started to expand after weeks compressed inside the very low blue zone. Historically, volatility breakouts from compressed conditions tend to extend rather than fade. The pattern supports the case for continued downside on the higher timeframe.
Gold lost the lower trendline of the prior parallel triangle on May 15 and has trended lower since. Therefore, the current sell-off extends that breakdown rather than counter-trending against it. The move mirrors the channel-based breakout framework BeInCrypto highlighted earlier this month.
Gold (XAU) Price Prediction Targets $4,044 Below $4,376 Support
On the daily chart, the immediate test is the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement at $4,376. A clean break below that zone opens the path toward the 0.786 Fibonacci at $4,044. That level marks the next major support cluster on the long-term Fib map.
However, if buyers defend $4,376, the first upside target sits at $4,609. A deeper relief rally could probe long-term resistance at the 0.382 Fibonacci near $4,842. That level has capped every bounce since the February peak above $5,600. The BeInCrypto May 2026 forecast tracks the same resistance band.
Meanwhile, X analyst CelalKucuker has mapped an even more aggressive downside path. His sequence projects a year-end 2026 target of $3,500.
“Gold 5600$ 4350$ 5250$ 4000$ 5000$ 4600$ 4200$ (almost) 3500$ 2026 end of year”
The outlook aligns with the bearish projection sketched on the higher-timeframe chart. Price targets there cascade from $4,234 toward $3,475. The path contrasts sharply with the $20,000 speculation circulating in derivatives markets.
For now, the daily channel and BBWP expansion suggest the path of least resistance remains to the downside. That outlook holds until $4,376 proves it can absorb sustained selling pressure.
The post Gold Price is Turning Bearish Fast as Key Support Above $4,300 is Tested appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Avalanche hits RWA milestone as AVAX price holds key level
- Avalanche’s network has reached a new record high in distributed RWA value.
- Data shows over $1.16 billion on-chain, boosted by BlackRock.
- AVAX price looks to hold $9.00 support amid this ecosystem growth.
Avalanche price hovered $9.25 on Wednesday as bulls attempted to solidify the uptick from intraday lows of $9.10.
The declines had put AVAX price down about 4% in the past 24 hours amid wider market weakness, with most altcoins shedding gains after Bitcoin briefly slipped below $75,000.
While the pullback in BTC could continue to pressure altcoins, could AVAX bounce to above $10.00 as the project hits a new high in terms of distributed real-world assets?
Avalanche RWA ecosystem sees sharp growth
Latest data indicates that Avalanche’s RWA ecosystem has recorded fresh momentum this month, reaching a new milestone for distributed RWAs on-chain.
Distributed RWAs represent assets that use the network as a distribution layer to enable investors to subscribe, hold, and manage tokenized securities or instruments through wallets or custodians.
Rwa.xyz values Avalanche shared shows the metric has surpassed $1.16 billion, with the network posting roughly 58% growth in distributed RWA value over the past two weeks.
Much of the uptick to increased activity from large institutional issuers and managers, notably BlackRock’s additional allocations to its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund.

Such flows into Avalanche-based products have pushed capital onto the chain, attracted liquidity providers, and boosted ancillary services such as custody, compliance tooling, and secondary-market trading.
As a whole, these services make Avalanche an appealing distribution layer for tokenization projects.
Industry observers say the growth reflects a broader trend by which the global value of tokenized assets has expanded significantly over the last year as institutions race to capture efficiencies from programmable settlement and fractional ownership.
AVAX price outlook
The AVAX token has struggled to recapture the momentum that pushed it to highs of $33 in late 2025.
From a technical perspective, AVAX’s daily chart shows the token under short-term pressure.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has edged lower toward neutral territory, signaling that momentum has weakened following the recent retracement.

Key support levels to monitor include $9.00 and $8.30, which align with recent intraday lows.
A deeper support band lies near $7.40, a level that would be tested if broader risk-off selling intensifies.
On the upside, resistance could emerge around $10.40, where sellers previously capped rallies.
The $12 area offers a more significant barrier tied to moving-average confluence and prior supply.
What’s the near-term outlook?
In the near term, AVAX’s direction is likely to remain correlated with BTC price action and institutional flows into Avalanche’s RWA products.
Renewed buyer interest, particularly if institutional subscriptions continue, could propel a recovery toward resistance.
Conversely, a sustained crypto-wide pullback would increase downside risk and test the supports outlined above.
Crypto World
Wall Street gets new crypto rival after Texas bank completes regulatory pivot
A forty-year-old Texas bank is stepping onto the national stage to challenge Wall Street’s push to get a grip on the digital asset industry.
United Texas Bank (UTB) secured approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to convert from a state-chartered financial institution into a nationally chartered bank on May 15, Scott Beck, the president and CEO of the firm, told CoinDesk on Wednesday.
The conversion move, Beck added, is to position his crypto-friendly bank as the primary bridge between the cryptocurrency industry and traditional financial institutions and to provide digital asset services he said the UTB has years fully delivering, while “Wall Street continues to tiptoe.”
The conversion granted by the OCC came with two conditions that Beck said have now been met. “Those conditions were satisfied as of today, May 27,” he said. Since 2024, the UTB operated under a Consent Order with the Federal Reserve, which related to its Bank Secrecy Act and compliance infrastructure.
“Rather than viewing that as a setback, we treated it as a mandate to build something exceptional, and we did. The result is UTB PRISM SENTINAL, our proprietary BSA/AML compliance platform,” he said.
The milestone makes the UTB one of the first banks in the U.S. to successfully complete an OCC conversion since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act 15 years ago, Beck added. He said the conversion also uniquely positions UTB as a bridge between crypto firms worldwide into the U.S. banking system, access that very few banks today are willing to give.
“The concept for United Texas Bank is a centralized value hub,” said the chair of UTB, a bank he himself said is unknown nationally, but widely sought out by crypto firms.
“If you’re a digital asset player, you can’t get an account at a Bank of America or a Citibank. You can come to United Texas Bank and basically have full access to the U.S. dollar,” he said, adding that his bank has been providing services to reputable crypto firms for about five years, handling over $120 billion in transactions for them yearly.
Standing with the giants
Beck explained that the strategic OCC conversion places the Dallas-based institution on par with money-center giants like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, granting it identical federal licensure, full trust powers and direct access to the Federal Reserve’s wire and ACH systems, while retaining the FDIC insurance it had.
However, unlike traditional Wall Street firms that are beginning to explore the crypto ecosystem, UTB already “underpins a massive chunk of global crypto liquidity, clearing $10 billion a month in U.S dollar volume for foreign banks, over-the-counter (OTC) desks and major exchanges.
UTB is not alone in the race for a competitive place within the growing crypto sector in the United States. Last week, Minnesota signed into law new rules allowing local banks to fight Wall Street for cryptocurrency profit. The state banks and credit unions joined forces with lawmakers to push legislation granting them authorization to provide crypto custody services to their clients.
For UTB, the conversion marks an ambitious operational pivot, Beck added. While crypto startups have spent years chasing limited, trust-only charters that bar them from the Federal Reserve’s payment rails, UTB’s national charter bypasses those restrictions entirely.
A U.S. first
“We are the first to move across to the national banking stage with full access to the Federal Reserve for wires and ACH,” Beck added.
By shifting away from the Texas Department of Banking and positioning itself directly under the OCC, UTB aligned its corporate structure with the executive branch of the federal government, shielding its clients from the fractured regulatory landscape that historically choked crypto firms, Beck said.
To capitalize further on its federal upgrade, the bank is launching UTB Atomic, an artificial intelligence-driven, real-time payment network engineered to bring back the round-the-clock liquidity infrastructure that collapsed when Silvergate and Signature Bank did.
In a 24/7 crypto market, traditional bank closures create massive settlement bottlenecks for institutional traders operating at 3:00 a.m.. UTB Atomic solves this by enabling instant, off-balance-sheet clearing between institutional clients while a parallel AI network, UTB Prism Sentinel, continuously conducts real-time blockchain surveillance to neutralize compliance risks, Beck explained.
“The biggest issue that faces the larger financial institutions is the ability to actually track what’s happening as the payments are coming through,” Beck said, adding that the system is purpose-built to navigate upcoming regulatory thresholds like the federal stablecoin frameworks under the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act.
With a comprehensive digital asset custody and full-service trust department slated to launch this summer, UTB aims to bridge traditional finance and crypto and positioning itself as the native financial plumbing for the next era of global commerce, Beck said.
Crypto World
Polymarket is Blocking VPN Access With KYC: Should You Worry?
Polymarket is encouraging more traders to verify their identities and tightening enforcement against VPN use, marking a clear shift from its long-standing permissionless trading model.
The world’s largest prediction market faces growing sanctions, legal, and regulatory pressure on its operations. House Oversight Committee investigators have requested KYC and geographic enforcement records by June 5.
What Changes for Everyday Users
According to a report from The Information, the company is pushing traders toward voluntary identity checks while clamping down on suspicious accounts.
Basic wallet-connect trading still works for most international users, who can deposit USD Coin (USDC) on Polygon without uploading personal documents.
That permissionless access is no longer guaranteed across the board. Polymarket now strictly polices VPN use, and accounts that bypass IP-based geoblocks risk suspension or permanent bans.
Traders running seven-figure positions, or rapid five-figure deposit-trade-withdraw cycles, have been documented triggering verification under internal anti-money laundering thresholds.
Users who complete a voluntary KYC or KYB form gain perks. These include direct co-location on Polymarket’s primary servers, which lowers latency for active traders.
Regulatory Pressure is Rising
The international platform remains separate from Polymarket US. The US arm requires full KYC since Polymarket acquired a CFTC-licensed exchange in 2025.
The shift followed a $1.4 million CFTC settlement in 2022 over unregistered binary options.
More than 33 countries now face full restrictions or technical blocks. These range from OFAC-sanctioned states to jurisdictions with strict gambling rules.
Stronger compliance reduces the threat of shutdowns, blocked withdrawals, and follow-on regulatory action. Privacy-focused traders, however, lose some of what made the platform distinctive.
Therefore, the message to international users is simple. Trade through a wallet in permitted countries, avoid VPN workarounds, and expect identity requests if activity stands out.
The trend points toward tighter controls, even where the front door stays open.
The post Polymarket is Blocking VPN Access With KYC: Should You Worry? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
HTX misrepresents Huobi Global S.A. after UK sanctions
Recently, the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) sanctioned an entity called “Huobi Global S.A.” for its alleged role in “providing financial services” to firms that are “carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia.”
Specifically, it alleged that this entity was interacting with what is commonly referred to as the A7 Payment Network, which includes the A7A5 stablecoin.
Additionally, Huobi Global S.A. was allegedly interacting with the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
Read more: UK sanctions HTX for alleged Russian sanctions violations
HTX has publicly responded to these allegations by claiming, “the listed entity Huobi Global S. A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange.”
It further claimed that “the designation does not and should not have any impact on the online HTX exchange. HTX’s global operations remain unaffected, and all user funds are safe.”
However, this update minimizes the extensive role that Huobi Global S.A. has served for HTX.
What is Huobi Global S.A.?
Huobi Global S.A. is a Panamanian incorporated entity that was incorporated on May 19th, 2023.
This entity lists Huobi Global Limited as one of its directors.
That is not the only connection to the HTX exchange, as Huobi Global S.A. is also the trademark holder for the HTX trademark in the United States.
However, the most striking connection comes from a legal filing related to Huobi Global S.A.
Read more: Justin Sun’s Poloniex added to UK regulator warning list
Specifically, on February 2nd of this year, Huobi Global S.A. filed a claim in the District Court for the District of Columbia. This claim was for Tether (USDT) tokens that had been burned and was related to the 2023 hack of HTX and the HECO bridge.
In this claim, lawyers for Huobi Global S.A. described it as the entity that “owns and operates HTX…and is the developer of the Huobi Eco Chain.”
So, mere months before HTX would publicly insist that “the listed entity Huobi Global S. A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange,” it was insisting in legal filings that it “owns and operates HTX.”
Protos has reached out to HTX for comment, but it did not immediately respond.
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Crypto World
OpenZeppelin Pushes Back After Ex-CTO Declares All of DeFi Unsafe

OpenZeppelin, a smart contract security firm whose libraries underpin most DeFi protocols, pushed back Tuesday against a viral post by its co-founder and former CTO declaring all of DeFi fundamentally unsafe, clarifying that the claims do not represent the company's position. Manuel Aráoz, who… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Important for Ripple (XRP) Traders: Rare Bottom Signal Emerges
Ripple (XRP) continues trading within a narrow range between around $1.30 and $1.38 despite several failed breakout attempts.
Santiment has identified a rare XRP signal as traders remain under increasing pressure.
High-Potential Rebound Zone
According to on-chain analytics platform Santiment, the average XRP trader active over the past 30 days is currently down 47%, as many investors are reportedly selling at the bottom during the recent market decline.
Santiment found that XRP’s 30-day Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV), a metric used to measure average trader returns, has now dropped to its lowest level since December 2020. MVRV readings historically tend to return toward 0%, which makes the current level an indication that the crypto asset may be in an extreme undervalued zone.
As per the analysis, the sharp decline is indicative of a growing fear and frustration among traders following XRP’s retracement, which has erased more than half of its market value since last summer. Santiment said XRP’s strong rally during late 2024 and early 2025 led many traders to enter positions near local highs before momentum weakened and repeated selloffs pushed short-term holders into heavy losses.
Despite the decline, the findings reveal that some long-term investors remain optimistic due to expectations surrounding regulatory progress, speculation about a potential XRP ETF, and Ripple’s broader adoption narrative. Santiment added that deeply negative MVRV zones like the current one have historically appeared when retail traders capitulate, often creating conditions where even minor positive catalysts can trigger strong recoveries.
Additionally, fear around the crypto asset has climbed to unusually high levels on social media. The ratio of bullish to bearish comments has dropped to just 1.1 positive comments for every 1 negative comment as traders grow more cautious about XRP’s outlook.
Santiment observed that similar periods of fear and skepticism have historically acted as contrarian signals for XRP, as many weaker holders tend to exit the market during sharp downturns. The platform added that previous moves into this “FUD zone” were often followed by price stabilization or short-term rebounds.
Rising Speculative Momentum
At the same time, fresh data from CryptoQuant pointed to growing speculative activity around XRP perpetual futures on Binance, even though the token itself has continued hovering near $1.34. The analytics firm said XRP’s volume imbalance reading climbed to roughly 0.54, which means that perpetual contract trading volumes are now significantly higher than during earlier periods of quieter market activity.
According to CryptoQuant, this suggests more traders are returning to short-term leveraged positions. The platform also noted that XRP’s Z-Score rose to nearly 0.95, meaning current trading activity is approaching one full standard deviation above its usual average.
CryptoQuant added that the indicator had spent an extended period in negative territory before recently moving back into positive levels, which points to a gradual improvement in trader risk appetite and renewed speculative participation in the market.
The post Important for Ripple (XRP) Traders: Rare Bottom Signal Emerges appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Pi at around $0.15 today, what happens to PI if it ever becomes a GENIUS Act stablecoin?
Pi Network is trading near $0.15 today, and the real question is whether a GENIUS Act-style shift toward regulated, reserve-backed digital dollars would cap its upside or finally give it a credible path to parity with the U.S. dollar.
Summary
- Pi Network is trading around $0.15, with most models seeing either flat or modestly higher prices into 2026
- The GENIUS Act framework for fully backed, bank-style stablecoins could one day turn PI from a speculative asset into a regulated dollar proxy
- That trade-off would likely swap 10x moonshot upside for a hard $1 target and a shot at mainstream payments and savings use cases
Pi Network’s (PI) various IOU markets are currently pricing PI just under the $0.15 mark, with recent data from Bybit showing the token at roughly $0.17 and analytics platforms such as CoinCodex and CoinCheckup clustering the live price in the $0.14–$0.15 band as of late May 2026. Price prediction engines are broadly cautious: CoinCodex, for example, projects Pi could slip toward $0.11 by late June 2026, implying downside of roughly 25% from current levels, while its 2026 full-year model sees an average price near $0.11 within a $0.10–$0.15 trading channel. Longer-term forecasts are more generous, with some outlets modeling potential paths toward $0.50–$0.80 by 2030 and even north of $1 by 2050, but those curves assume PI remains a high-beta, speculative asset tied to broader crypto liquidity cycles rather than a tightly managed stablecoin.
The GENIUS (National Innovation Guidance and Establishment for American Stablecoins) Act points to a radically different future. The law is designed to create a category of fully reserved, U.S.-regulated stablecoins that hold one-to-one backing in cash or ultra-safe assets like U.S. Treasuries and live inside a bank-like supervisory perimeter. In a viral explainer circulating in the Pi community, one commentary describes how GENIUS-compliant issuers “must hold one-to-one reserves, one real dollar or super safe equivalents in protected accounts,” and notes that Pi teams are “actively exploring the path to register Pi as a GENIUS-certified stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar,” with the explicit goal that “one Pi equal…1 U.S.” dollar. In that vision, the Pi users have been mining for years would “no longer have a fluctuating unknown value” but would convert into a regulated digital dollar with real-world purchasing power.
What a GENIUS-style pivot would mean for PI’s price path
If Pi ever did complete that pivot—from an IOU-like, thinly traded altcoin at $0.15 into a GENIUS Act registered, reserve-backed stablecoin—the price prediction game changes completely. Under a strict one-to-one reserve model, the long-term “target” price is effectively hard-coded at $1, with variations only around market confidence, liquidity and short-term technical noise. Overnight, the question “Can PI hit $10?” becomes nonsensical; the relevant question becomes “Can PI credibly defend $1 through cycles?” That is the trade-off: accept a ceiling on upside in exchange for dramatically lower volatility, better regulatory clarity and access to mainstream payments rails and bank integrations.
From today’s roughly $0.15 spot price, even that path is non-trivial. To credibly peg PI at $1 under GENIUS rules, its backers would have to amass and ring-fence reserves that match whatever portion of the existing supply they convert into the new instrument, plus manage redemptions in a way that avoids bank-run dynamics. For existing holders who mined or bought PI on the expectation of uncapped upside, a forced migration into a $1-anchored instrument could feel like an expropriation of optionality, especially if conversion terms do not fully reward early risk-taking. On the other hand, a regulated stablecoin backed by one-to-one reserves could be the only realistic path to turning Pi from a speculative IOU priced at cents into something that merchants, payroll platforms and even conservative fintechs will actually touch.
Price prediction in a bifurcated future
In the base case where Pi never becomes a GENIUS-compliant stablecoin, the numbers on the table are modest. CoinCodex’s mid-range scenario has PI averaging around $0.11 in 2026 and potentially climbing toward $0.49 by 2030, with bullish tails that extend above $0.80 by 2040 and $1.70 by 2050, assuming the project stays alive and the broader crypto cycle cooperates. Other forecasters sketch similar arcs, generally keeping PI below $0.20 in the near term but allowing for multi-bagger potential over a decade if adoption, listings and network effects materialize. In that world, Pi is another high-risk token riding crypto’s liquidity waves, not a serious monetary instrument.
Under a GENIUS-style pivot, the price path compresses. The bull case is not a 10x from $0.15 to $1.50; it is a roughly 6–7x move to $1 followed by a plateau where returns come from using Pi in real-world commerce, payments and yield-bearing wrappers rather than capital gains on the token itself. The bear case shifts too: instead of grinding down toward zero in a liquidity winter, a fully reserved, well-governed Pi stablecoin would either hold the peg or fail outright if governance, reserves or regulation blow up. For now, Pi trades and is modeled as if the GENIUS Act is background noise. If the project ever actually crosses that regulatory Rubicon, every price prediction you see today will need to be rewritten from scratch.
Crypto World
Strategy CEO bought $19K of STRC for his kids after making $37M
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) CEO Phong Le just bought $5,467 of his company’s STRC preferred shares for two of his children. The same man earned over $37 million running the company over the past three years, including $13.7 million in total executive compensation during fiscal 2025 alone.
Not that it makes the figure any better, but all three minor children technically held STRC before May 22. Together, they hold 186 STRC shares, worth $18,600 combined.
Alongside founder Michael Saylor, Le has spent the past year pitching STRC to retail investors as a supposed competitor to high-yield bank accounts and money markets. Le’s 11.5% dividend-paying, variable-rate stock has a market cap of $10.4 billion — about four-fifths of which is owned by non-accredited, retail investors.
Le disclosed his May 22 familial purchases on a SEC Form 4 dated May 26. He bought 50 STRC shares at $99.41 for Minor Child 1, plus 5 shares at $99.37 for Minor Child 3.
BitcoinTreasuries.NET celebrated the filing, “Bitcoiner dad securing the future for his kids.”
Quite the gift from the Strategy CEO who made $37 million
Strategy’s 2025 financials, filed with the SEC on April 28, list Le’s 2025 total compensation at $13,784,204. Specifically, his package breakdown was $1.1 million in salary, $1.235 million in bonus, $8.8 million in stock awards, and $2.38 million in option awards.
In other words, Le’s gift to his children works out to less than one one-hundredth of his 2025 stock awards alone.
His 2024 total was slightly higher, $15.74 million. That was mostly due to the higher closing price of Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, in 2024 versus 2025. In 2023, Le received $8 million.
Read more: Strategy’s BTC binge has cost it $1 billion in expenses
Le has also bought STRC for himself, although not in quantities that would come anywhere close to his level of compensation, let alone net worth. On March 19, he bought 2,509 STRC shares at $99.62, a $250,000 open-market trade.
Trivial relative to his personal fortune, he told podcaster Natalie Brunell that he wanted to “experience” STRC, likening its monthly dividends to a paycheck.
CEO whose common stock lost 58% in 12 months
STRC is a perpetual preferred share that pays a monthly dividend and is quasi-pegged at $100, even though it has traded as low as $90.52 per share on the Nasdaq. In its private debut, Strategy priced its public offering at $90 per share on July 24, 2025.
To encourage bids up to $100 per share, Strategy has hiked the monthly dividend rate seven times since launching STRC, from 9% to 11.5% today.
Le personally owns 8,009 STRC, 6,000 Strife, 4,500 Stride, and 22,923 MSTR common shares.

STRC closed at $99.47 on Tuesday, just below its $100 par. The company’s MSTR common stock has declined 11% over the past six months and 58% over the past 12 months.
The company’s massive stockpile of bitcoin (BTC) were acquired for an average $75,700 cost basis — slightly above the current market — excluding $1 billion of costs while running that acquisition strategy for the past six years.
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