Tag: Business – Decrypt

Bitcoin was unable to surpass its 200-day moving average price around $82,430, according to a report from analytics firm CryptoQuant, cutting short its so-called bear market rally and leaving it at a critical point ahead of its next move.  

The rejection, though still 37% above its April lows, mirrors Bitcoin’s March 2022 relief rally that was followed by a significant downturn, which saw Bitcoin fall from as high as $47,000 to less than $16,000 later that year. 

In addition to the rejection of its average closing price over the last 200 days, unrealized profits levels are also high, potentially adding to sell pressure. 

“Traders’ unrealized profit margins reached 17.7% on May 5, the highest reading since June 2025, signaling elevated selling pressure risk as holders sitting on large unrealized gains become increasingly incentivized to distribute,” the report reads. 

“These margin levels mirror those seen in March 2022, precisely when Bitcoin last tested the 200-day MA before resuming its decline,” it notes.

Not only are profit levels high, but profit-taking has already begun, according to the on-chain analytics firm. It explained that last week, traders locked in the largest profit-taking day—14.6K Bitcoin, or $1.16 billion worth as of this writing—since December 2025. 

“Historically, this anticipates lower prices as traders start to sell,” the firm wrote. 

Furthermore, the Coinbase Premium, or the difference in the price of Bitcoin on Coinbase versus Binance, has flipped negative since the end of April. The indicator, which is typically used to evaluate the demand for BTC in the United States, currently showcases declining demand for spot BTC buyers. 

BTC has fallen around 1.6% in the last 24 hours and 2.5% in the last week of trading, recently changing hands at $79,379—about 3.5% below the 200-day moving average highlighted by CryptoQuant. 

And while the rejection may lead to a further downtrend, the firm did indicate that Bitcoin has a major support level around $70,000, suggesting that the marker represents a key level where selling may become exhausted. 

“Bitcoin may find support around $70K, the traders’ on-chain realized price, if the price correction continues,” the report says. “This level has historically acted as a key resistance-turned-support band during bear markets, as it represents the average cost basis of short-term traders and the level at which unrealized profit margins compress back toward zero, reducing the incentive for further selling,” it added.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh on Wednesday as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, clearing a pathway for him to take over the central bank’s reins.

Following months of tension marked by President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Fed Chair Jerome Powell, lawmakers voted 54-45 in favor of Warsh. A Department of Justice investigation into Powell, recently closed, had become a barrier for some officials in supporting Warsh’s nomination.

Although Warsh has called some crypto projects fraudulent and worthless, he disclosed earlier this year investments in crypto-native projects such as Polymarket and Solana. In an interview published earlier this year, he also said that Bitcoin “does not make me nervous.”

The price of Bitcoin was little changed following Warsh’s confirmation, hovering around $79,500, according to CoinGecko.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was among pro-crypto politicians that welcomed the Senate’s confirmation of Warsh. She said in an X post that “American businesses and digital asset holders finally have a leader at the Fed who is ready to deliver it.”

Last month, Warsh affirmed to Lummis during a Senate hearing that he thinks digital assets should be incorporated into America’s finance industry. Warsh said that digital assets are “already part of the fabric of our financial services industry.”

Warsh’s confirmation also received a blessing from Mike Selig, the CFTC chair that has come out in defense of prediction markets this year amid several state lawsuits. “I look forward to working together,” Selig said in a post to X.

Following the expiration of Powell’s eight-year term, Warsh is now expected to lead a Fed that has wrestled with elevated levels of inflation for years. At the same time, Powell indicated that he would remain a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, aiming to defend the institution against what he described as “unprecedented” legal attacks.

Powell’s remarks focused on the central bank’s ability to conduct monetary policy “without considering political factors.” Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is engaged in a high-stakes legal battle with the president, who is attempting to remove her from her position over alleged mortgage fraud.

Warsh has signaled an openness to lowering interest rates; however, traders don’t expect the central bank to loosen monetary conditions at all this year. With tension in the Middle East fueling higher energy cuts, they foresee a hike as more likely this year, per CME FedWatch.

On Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, traders penciled in a 3.7% chance of the Fed lowering interest rate by 25 basis points before July. Those odds have ticked down slightly from 4.7% over the past 30 days.

Lower interest rates tend to buoy risk assets like stocks and crypto, and on Tuesday, inflation numbers showed that consumer price rose 3.85% in the 12 months through April. Drifting away from the Fed’s 2% target, the print marked the highest reading since May 2023.

Warsh, a former Fed governor, developed a reputation as an “inflation hawk” during his previous stint at the central bank. Still, his confirmation represents a positive development for digital assets, Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, told Decrypt.

“Kevin Warsh is the first Fed Chair to endorse Bitcoin and describe it as a useful signal for policymakers, reflecting a shift in institutional legitimacy for crypto,” he said. “While he’s known as an inflation hawk, his stated belief that rates can move lower as a result of AI-driven productivity gains provide a plausible path to more accommodative liquidity conditions for crypto assets.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional details and an analyst comment.

Prediction market Myriad has fully adopted Chainlink, the industry-standard oracle platform, to power its crypto prediction markets, starting with markets for BTC, ETH, BNB, and SOL, with RWA markets to follow. Chainlink unlocks high speed prediction markets that provide near real-time payouts for users.

Underpinning the integration, the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) equips Myriad with a unified orchestration layer to automate market creation, resolution, and settlement, powered entirely by high-speed data from Chainlink Data Streams.

“Adopting Chainlink as the official oracle infrastructure to power our stock, commodities, and crypto prediction markets was an obvious choice to build user trust and accelerate the adoption of Myriad,” said Ilan Hazan, co-founder and COO of Myriad, the prediction market platform owned and operated by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan.

He added that the integration with Chainlink enables Myriad to “realize our goal of building prediction products that match the behavior of our early user base on Decrypt and similar media environments,” noting that it enables Myriad to launch markets that are “faster, more contextual, and aligned with how users consume information and express views in real time.”

Dependent on high-speed data and secure, automated execution, prediction markets have historically faced challenges from fragmented oracle solutions, custom integrations, and centralized resolution mechanisms.

As Myriad prepares to scale following its recent seed investment round, its adoption of Chainlink provides it with the market-leading, verifiable data infrastructure that is essential to delivering fair and transparent prediction market outcomes, as well as an interoperable orchestration layer powering its next phase of prediction market expansion.

“By adopting Chainlink to power its new stock, commodities and crypto markets, Myriad is accelerating the adoption of prediction markets, by enabling quick payouts and fair outcomes,” said Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs. “When you connect Chainlink to a high-growth market, usage expands, new participants come onchain, and the entire space moves forward.”

Myriad is initially focusing on crypto, equity, and commodities markets, which already boast strong engagement and liquidity, Hazan said. “Integrating Chainlink allows Myriad to reliably create and settle markets on a much broader range of real world datasets,” he noted, adding that it enables the prediction market to “expand beyond crypto price predictions into equities, indices, commodities and other event driven markets.”

What is Chainlink CRE?

As an all-in-one orchestration layer, the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) was critical to unlocking these new markets by providing the secure computing environment that coordinates and automates the complex workflows required to continuously launch and settle high speed prediction markets based on deterministic data.

Launched in November 2025, CRE enables developers to run a single piece of workflow code that coordinates multi-stage workflows, streamlining efficiencies and processes to the point where complex institutional smart contracts can be deployed “not in months, not in weeks, but in days and eventually hours,” as stated Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov.

Myriad’s adoption of Chainlink is a “key milestone” for Myriad, said Hazan, adding that it “significantly increases the speed at which we can launch new markets and diversify our catalog.”

With less than 24 hours to go until the Senate Banking Committee’s landmark vote on the Clarity Act, participating senators have introduced dozens of amendments to the major crypto bill.

At tomorrow’s hearing, lawmakers will vote on adding each amendment to the sprawling legislation—which would formally legalize most crypto activity in the United States—before ultimately deciding whether to pass the bill onto the Senate floor.

Here’s a breakdown of those amendments, which have been reviewed by Decrypt. The last-minute additions to the Clarity Act pertain not only to well-worn topics like stablecoin yield and DeFi regulation—but also credit card fees, housing, and even Jeffrey Epstein.

Stablecoin yield and Trump ventures

Some of tomorrow’s proposed amendments tackle familiar subjects, including rewards on stablecoin holdings and attempts to limit the lucrative, crypto-related ventures of President Donald Trump and his family.

One amendment vote sure to garner attention tomorrow comes courtesy of Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who has reproduced the exact language on stablecoin yield requested by the banking industry. The amendment will force all members of the Senate Banking Committee to vote on its inclusion in the Clarity Act and essentially pick a side.

For months, the banking industry and the crypto lobby have battled over the fate of programs offering rewards on stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. The current Clarity Act language on the subject received approval from the crypto industry, but has been hammered by traditional banks.

In regards to crypto’s potential impact on the broader economy, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced an amendment that would prohibit the U.S. government from ever providing crypto businesses financial assistance to prevent “failure or bankruptcy.”

Another amendment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would prevent the U.S. government from approving banking-related applications for institutions directly tied to the president, the vice president, members of Congress, and their immediate families. It would also prohibit such individuals from controlling or owning banks.

The language is all-but certainly a jab at the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, which applied this year to receive a banking charter from the Trump administration. Democrats including Warren have hammered the situation as indicative of the president’s alleged self-dealing.

In a similar vein, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) has introduced an amendment requiring the re-establishment of an inter-agency National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which would, among other things, investigate crypto ventures with direct ties to the president and their immediate family.

Broader language regarding the president’s involvement with crypto is currently being negotiated between leaders in both parties. Key pro-crypto Democrats have said they will not vote the Clarity Act through to the Senate floor tomorrow unless guarantees about such language have been made by the time of the hearing. 

DeFi restrictions, sanctions, and privacy

Of the dozens upon dozens of amendments set to receive votes tomorrow, many pertain to the hot-button issues of regulating decentralized finance (DeFi), protecting user privacy, and maintaining controls on illicit crypto users. 

Andy Kim, who voted to pass the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act out of committee last spring, introduced several amendments to the Clarity Act focused on beefing up national security protections in crypto. 

One such amendment would require businesses deriving significant revenue from DeFi platforms to institute proactive anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs. Another would grant the U.S. government clear jurisdiction to sanction any transactions involving U.S.-dollar backed stablecoins.

Another amendment from Elizabeth Warren would allow the U.S. government to blacklist crypto platforms that facilitate more than one illicit transaction. An additional amendment from Jack Reed, sure to attract the crypto industry’s ire, would entirely eliminate the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), a key provision of the Clarity Act exempting DeFi from most new regulations and broadly protecting crypto software developers from criminal prosecution.

Indeed, advocates such as the DeFi Education Fund have already begun calling out amendments they want struck down, including those meant to weaken protections for developers and decentralized finance protocols.

Senate Republicans have also introduced amendments on the subject of illicit crypto activity and privacy. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced language that would create a permanent Digital Asset Cyber Innovation Center at the Treasury Department, designed to counter crypto-related threats from state actors including North Korea and Iran.

Hagerty also introduced an amendment that would permanently ban the U.S. government from issuing its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. A five-year ban on such an asset is attached to a major housing bill currently on hold in the House.

Non-crypto amendments

Then there are the many amendments that have absolutely nothing to do with crypto. 

One, from Bill Hagerty, would cut regulations on housing development in certain approved areas of the country. Another, from Elizabeth Warren, would require federal banking regulators to release all information in their possession related to Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators within 90 days of the Clarity Act’s passage.

Another from Warren (the progressive senator filed over 40 amendments on the bill) would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for a year. And one from Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) would increase the swipe fees paid by merchants and retailers to banks to keep up with inflation. The policy, previously floated by Britt, would be a particular boon to community banks—which feel especially threatened by stablecoin yield. 

“If you’ve made community banks angry about stablecoin yield, this is a nice little treat on the side,” one D.C. insider told Decrypt.

Digital assets have the potential to effect sweeping changes on U.K. financial markets, according to Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Assets Summit, Rigby said that digital assets offer benefits including “efficiencies generally, but also just everything happening much more speedily.” She added that it’s important to consider “what that actually means for business,” including quicker capital flows and “capital being freed up for other things.”

More broadly, Rigby argued, digital assets have “the potential for complete transformation of our markets, and that goes beyond efficiencies,” noting that the Treasury has to “work very closely with industry, with regulators, and give some proper thought to exactly how digital assets do transform our financial markets.”

Her comments come as the King’s Speech introduces an Enhancing Financial Services Bill, which Rigby noted “contains major reforms that are going to drive growth in our financial services sector.” They include provisions that seek to “modernise how the sector is regulated,” highlighting the need to ensure that the “administrative burden on firms is proportionate.”

Within the digital assets sector, Rigby pointed to the FCA and Bank of England’s upcoming stablecoin legislation, with the portal allowing for authorizations set to open “later this year.” She also highlighted the stablecoin regulatory sandbox launched by the FCA earlier this year, with four firms who are “keen to get a GBP stablecoin out there,” as well as the imminent publication of a consultation inviting the payments sector to provide feedback on a “single, coherent framework for both traditional and tokenised payments” including stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

“This is really about streamlining regulation in the payment space,” she said, encompassing both stablecoins and AI agents.

The Economic Secretary also pointed to the need to “minimize frictions” between the U.K. and U.S. regulatory regimes for digital assets, adding that it “may well take the form of some forms of recognition or alignment.”

Rigby added that digital assets are set to be a feature of the U.K.’s financial landscape, saying, “I’m pretty clear that’s what the future looks like. Given that, she added, “we need to embrace those forms of innovation, and we need to be doing it in the right way.”

Metaplanet reported a first-quarter loss of $725 million (¥114.5 billion) on Wednesday, a sharp widening driven by a decrease in the value of its Bitcoin holdings. The firm posted a $31 million (¥5 billion) loss a year ago.

During the period ended March 31, the Tokyo-based firm added 5,075 Bitcoin to its stockpile, a 14.5% increase quarter-over-quarter. With Bitcoin recently changing hands around $79,300, the company’s stash, totaling 40,177 Bitcoin, was valued around $3.18 billion.

Since Metaplanet began accumulating Bitcoin in April 2024, the company has emerged as the digital asset’s third-largest corporate holder. Like many Bitcoin-buying firms, the company has faced pressure as the digital asset has declined from record highs last year.

The company’s stock closed at ¥327.00 on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Finance. Shares have advanced 5.8% over the past month—turning higher as Bitcoin’s price has hovered around the $80,000 mark—but they remain 45% lower compared to a year ago.

Despite a declining stock price, the company signaled that its investor base has widened to around 250,000 total shareholders compared with 63,600 last year.

Metaplanet’s business once revolved around hotel management, but it now derives most of its revenue from selling Bitcoin options contracts. In the first quarter, the company generated $15.8 million (¥2.5 billion) from that segment, up sharply from $4.8 million (¥770 million) last year.

“Our ambition runs along two tracks: continuing to build our Bitcoin position with discipline and patience, while developing the services and businesses that operate atop that foundation,” Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said in a post to X.

The company, in many ways, has positioned itself as the Strategy of Japan. Along those lines, Metaplanet has moved to establish a preferred share that mimics STRC, the variable-rate product that Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin giant has embraced as a source of funding.

In a separate post to X, Gerovich acknowledged that the firm has yet to issue “MARS” and “MERCURY,” dividend-paying products unveiled in November. He said the process is “taking longer than initially anticipated,” but remains committed to bringing them to market.

Although Strategy currently pays out dividends monthly on STRC, Gerovich noted that Japanese listed companies typically make distributions once or twice a year. He added that the design for MARS and MERCURY is currently being refined in relation to local market practices.

Artificial intelligence took center stage at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as filmmakers and actors debated how the technology will reshape performance-capture acting, digital likeness protections, and filmmaking in Hollywood.

Speaking at a Cannes masterclass after receiving an honorary Palme d’Or award, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy director Peter Jackson defended the use of AI in filmmaking and warned that fears surrounding the technology could overshadow human performances, according to a report by Variety.

“To me, it’s just a special effect,” Jackson said. “It’s no different from other special effects.”

Jackson said concerns about AI should focus less on the technology itself and more on how studios and companies use actors’ likenesses. He said digital recreations become problematic when performers lose control over their image or identity.

“If you’re doing an AI duplicate of somebody, like Indiana Jones or anyone else—as long as you’ve licensed the rights off the person who you’re showing, I don’t see the issue,” Jackson said. He added that the problem is “when people’s likenesses get stolen and usurped.”

Jackson also suggested the current climate around AI may make it harder for performance-capture actors to receive recognition from award bodies.

“Which is a bit unfair, especially in the Andy Serkis case where it’s not an AI-generated performance, it’s a human-generated performance 100% of the way,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s comments come as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and others tighten rules around AI in filmmaking. Earlier this month, the Academy announced that it is barring AI-generated performances and screenplays from Oscar eligibility unless human actors and writers remain at the center of the work.

Also at Cannes, actress Demi Moore said Hollywood needs to adapt to AI instead of trying to block its growth across the entertainment industry.

“AI is here. And so to fight it is to fight something that is a battle that we will lose,” she said. “So to find ways in which we can work with it I think is a more valuable path to take.”

Moore added that Hollywood is “probably not” doing enough to protect itself from AI-related risks. Still, she argued that the technology cannot replace the human side of artistic expression.

“The truth is there really isn’t anything to fear, because what it can never replace is what true art comes from,” Moore said. “It comes from the soul.”

With the Bank of England gearing up to accept applications from would-be stablecoin issuers, its executive director of financial market infrastructure explained that the central bank is treating stablecoins as “a new form of money.”

Speaking in a panel discussion at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit, Sasha Mills noted that, “By the end of the year, we will be open and welcoming applications” from those looking to launch “a systemic stablecoin for widely used payments in the U.K.”

Ahead of the U.K.’s stablecoin regime coming into force, the Bank of England is “not picking winners” in the debate between tokenized deposits and stablecoins, Mills said, noting that at this stage, “We do not know which use case is better suited for which type of new money.”

“We’re treating—because we think that’s the case—stablecoins as a new form of money,” Mills explained. “It needs to be equally robust as all the other forms of money,” enabling end users to “choose in an interoperable way” between alternatives such as tokenized deposits, stablecoins and e-money. “That preference will come with experience,” she added.

The bank defines “systemic stablecoins” as “those that are widely used in payments and therefore may pose risks to U.K. financial stability,” while those not widely used for retail or corporate payments will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

With the lion’s share of the stablecoin market denominated in USD, the FCA’s Director for Payments and Digital Assets, Matthew Long, insisted that there is still a role for a GBP-denominated stablecoin.

“We’ve created a regime where we could have a trusted, redeemable stablecoin, which we’re proud to stand behind,” Long said, pointing out that the FCA has approved four firms to operate in its regulatory sandbox.

“What we are doing is supporting those firms with innovation,” he said, adding that, “They’re meeting those standards that we’ve set on our regulation, and they are launching stablecoins.” Ultimately, he said, “from a regulator’s point of view, it’s for us to support that industry, support that growth, but ultimately it’s for industry to deliver the stablecoin.”

On prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan, users put just a 13% chance on one of those firms, neobank Revolut, launching its own stablecoin before July.

The Bank of England’s Mills pointed out that while 99% of global stablecoins are denominated in dollars, they were created prior to the GENIUS Act coming into force in the U.S., “so they’re not GENIUS-compliant.”

In the dollar-stablecoin industry, she noted, stablecoin issuers are “issuing a new type of stablecoin, consistent, or anticipated to be consistent with the legislation.” With the U.K.’s “full package” for systemic stablecoins set for applications by the end of the year, she said, in terms of timing, “We’re in the same place” as the U.S.

While the U.K.’s stablecoin regime is “perceived as being more robust,” Mills added, “that’s because we’re allowing it and treating it in a way that is money.”

Global banking giant Charles Schwab said Tuesday that it has opened access to Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for a batch of retail users, allowing them to trade the top crypto assets right alongside their other investments. 

The firm’s Schwab Crypto accounts will allow users to trade spot BTC and ETH, expanding beyond the crypto exposure that was previously only accessible via crypto-related equities, ETFs, and other exchange-traded products (ETPs). 

The firm’s CEO Rick Wurster previously told Barron’s that the firm’s rollout would start with a phased rollout in Q2 ahead of a larger expansion. 

“Following a successful employee pilot, we began rolling out access to Schwab Crypto accounts earlier this week to a cohort of eligible retail clients who signed up on our interest list,” a representative for the firm told Decrypt. “We will continue rolling out access to eligible clients over the coming months.”

While the addition of spot trading has been long anticipated, the firm’s official launch comes a little more than one year after President Donald Trump returned to office and began instituting more crypto-friendly policies.

Previous comments from the firm indicated that its entrance into the world of spot trading would only come with improved regulatory clarity. In the future, though, its embrace of crypto may take different forms. 

Last year, Wurster said the firm would like to gain exposure to the growing stablecoin scene, saying “that’s something we do want to be able to offer,” during an earnings call.

In April, he said it’s likely that the firm will also gain exposure to another growing sector in the future: prediction markets. 

Though he said the firm is not rushing to offer products in that realm, he told investors that “at some point, we will likely have prediction markets.” Such wagers would likely focus on financial outcomes, however, and steer clear of topics like sports, pop culture, and elections that have drawn interest at broader prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.

Shares in Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) are up around 1% on Wednesday, recently changing hands around $91.18. 

Meanwhile, BTC and ETH are each down more than 1% on the day, trading near $78,850 and $2,242, respectively.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors and stocks rebound after hot CPI; BTC at $80.6k
• Trump takes over a dozen CEOs to China ahead of Xi meeting
• Clarity Act receives over 100 amendments ahead of Thursday markup
• ETH devs launch Clear Signing in effort to avoid user losses
• Google discloses 1st instance of a threat actor using an AI-generated zero-day exploit in a live attack

📈 CPI Comes In Hot; Stocks, Crypto Shrug

The April CPI print dropped Tuesday morning and delivered the wrong news for rate cut hopes.

Headline inflation rose 0.6% for the month, putting the 12-month rate at 3.8%, the highest since May 2023. Core CPI, excluding food and energy, increased 0.4% monthly and 2.8% annually, above the 2.7% consensus on both fronts. Real average hourly wages slipped 0.5% for the month and fell 0.3% annually, meaning workers are getting paid more nominally but losing ground in real terms. That’s the stagflation concern: high inflation, slowing real income, and a central bank that can’t cut.

Clearly the Iran War and oil are a big driver. Energy costs jumped 17.9% year-over-year, the steepest annual increase since September 2022, driven by gasoline up 28.4% and fuel oil up 54.3%.

Markets briefly sold off on the news, though stocks still closed the day green and Bitcoin rebounded from $80k to $80.7k.

This all comes as Kevin Warsh takes over the Federal Reserve from Jerome Powell on Friday. Odds of a rate hike in 2026 (hike, not cut) jumped to 30% after the CPI print, up from just 1% a month ago. So hikes are much more on the table than cuts.

As for Warsh, he inherits a Fed that cannot cut, an economy with 3.8% inflation, oil still above $100, and rising stagflation concerns. He will have his work cut out for him…

📝 The Clarity Act Full Text Is Revealed

The Senate Banking Committee unveiled the 309-page Clarity Act text just after midnight Tuesday, ahead of Thursday’s 10:30am ET markup vote.

The text landed without major surprises. The core provisions include:

• SEC/CFTC jurisdiction split with most digital assets classified as commodities
• DeFi developer protections for those who don’t control user funds
• Stablecoin yield ban on passive holdings with activity-based rewards permitted.

Notably missing from the 309-page draft is any mention of Ethics provisions, resulting from the Trump family crypto dealings. Without those provisions, many Democrats believe the bill is dead on arrival.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) remains publicly uncommitted, and all 13 Republican votes are needed for the committee to advance the bill. Major US labor unions including SEIU, AFT, NEA, and AFSCME sent a joint letter to the Senate demanding the bill be rejected, arguing it could create risks for worker pension programs.

As of this morning, over 100 amendments have already been filed for review ahead of the Thursday markup—another sign that this is far from a done deal in its current state.

Citi analysts have tied their $143,000 BTC base-case target for 2026 directly to Clarity Act passage, projecting an additional $15 billion in net ETF inflows once the bill clears Congress. If it doesn’t pass, well, those targets will need to be re-evaluated.

💰 JPMorgan Files for 2nd Tokenized Money Market Fund on ETH

JPMorgan filed Tuesday to launch the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (JLTXX) on Ethereum, specifically designed to meet reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.

The fund invests exclusively in short-term US Treasuries, cash, and overnight repo agreements backed by government securities. The fund will be powered by JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Assets unit, creating a permissioned system that sits on top of public Ethereum as its base layer.

It’s JPMorgan’s second tokenized money market product (its MONY fund launched on Ethereum in December 2025), but JLTXX is specifically structured around the stablecoin reserve use case rather than general institutional liquidity management. The filing puts JPMorgan directly in competition with BlackRock’s Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, filed the same week, and Morgan Stanley’s MSNXX fund, which launched last month targeting the same institutional stablecoin reserve market. The three largest financial institutions in the world are all racing to become the Treasury yield infrastructure layer for a $320 billion stablecoin market growing 28% annually.

The RWA market has grown 200% year-over-year to $30 billion. Expect that growth to continue.

💡Ethereum Devs Launch Clear Signing, Fixing Longtime Security Issue

An Ethereum working group consisting of wallet developers, security firms, and the Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security Initiative launched Clear Signing Tuesday—an open standard designed to end blind signing, the flaw behind billions in user losses.

Blind signing is the practice of approving hexadecimal data without understanding what it actually does. When users approve Ethereum transactions, they currently see “low-level, machine-readable formats that are accurate but difficult to interpret without technical expertise.” Attackers exploit this by making malicious approvals look identical to legitimate ones at the point of signing.

The $1.5B Bybit exploit, the $235M WazirX breach, and the CoW DAO domain hijacking this month all followed the same playbook: get a user or multisig signer to approve a transaction whose true intent was hidden. That gets much harder to pull off with clear signing.

The working group includes Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Fireblocks. Trezor CTO Tomáš Sušánka: “This addresses a fundamental vulnerability that has plagued cryptocurrency users for years: blind signing. When users can’t understand what they’re signing, security becomes much more difficult. This standard changes that, and every wallet provider should embrace it.”

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are slightly green after a CPI beat and Trump’s China trip looming; BTC -0.1% at $80.6k; ETH +1% at $2,303; SOL even at $95; HYPE -3% at $39.40
• INJ (+24%), TIA (+11%) and STX (+9%) led top movers
• Oil -1% at $98; Gold +0.3% at $4,702
• Stock futures are green with the Nasdaq up 0.7% as Nvidia leads chip stocks higher
• Trump is taking over a dozen CEOs to China with him as he prepares to meet with Xi, including Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Larry Fink, Tim Cook and others
• Kevin Warsh was confirmed to the Fed Board of Governors Tuesday in a 51-45 Senate vote, with Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman the sole crossover vote
• The Senate Banking Committee received over 100 amendments to the Clarity Act ahead of tomorrow’s markup
• Wintermute called the latest Bitcoin rally a short squeeze rather than a breakout, pointing to open interest and spot volumes as its indicators
• Square crossed 1 million Bitcoin-enabled merchants Tuesday, six weeks after auto-enabling Lightning Network BTC payments for eligible US sellers on March 30; merchants receive USD by default with BTC converted instantly at checkout
• DTCC selected Chainlink to power its Collateral AppChain Tuesday, integrating Chainlink’s Runtime Environment and data standard to enable 24/7 near-real-time automated collateral management
• Franklin Templeton and Kraken parent Payward announced a strategic partnership Tuesday to bring tokenized equities, actively managed onchain funds, and BENJI money market fund integration onto Kraken’s platform

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were mixed; DOGE +4%, SHIB even, PEPE even, PENGU -6%, TRUMP +4%, BONK even%, SPX +2%, FARTCOIN -4%
• RKC (+140%), Worldcup (+800%), CopperInu (+90%), Hanta (+55%), Maga (+50%) and Aura (+36%) led notable movers

📈 Myriad Market of the Day

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Jez introduced his project PaperTrade as a fair-launch, fully onchain perpetuals exchange built on Hyperliquid, offering up to 1,000x leverage with zero slippage, no funding costs, and a self-bootstrapping liquidity pool
• Elliptic raised $120M led by SoftBank to expand its AI-powered blockchain compliance tools for financial institutions
• Google’s Threat Intelligence Group disclosed Tuesday it detected the first known instance of a threat actor using an AI-generated zero-day exploit in a live attack

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly red down 1-3%; Punks +1% at 29.6 ETH, BAYC -2% at 10.15 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 5.19 ETH; Hypurr’s -3% at 290 HYPE
• Gift of Time (+30%), Slonks (+30%) and GVC (+5%) led notable movers