Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

The XRP Ledger added 4,941 new wallets in a single day on June 30, its strongest network growth spike in over three months, even as $XRP struggles to hold the psychologically important $1 mark.

According to on-chain analytics firm @SantimentData, the inflection point came on June 25, when XRP fell to 19-month lows near $1.01. Rather than triggering a sell-off, the drop appears to have drawn in fresh buyers. The XRP Ledger added 4,941 new wallets in a single day, its strongest network growth spike in over three months, and that surge is happening at the exact moment price sits closest to breaking below the psychologically important $1 level.

Each wallet on the XRP Ledger requires a small reserve deposit to activate, meaning each new account represents a deliberate decision to commit funds rather than a costless sign-up. That makes the 4,941 figure harder to dismiss as noise.

Sentiment Flips Bullish at the Worst Moment on the Chart Bullish sentiment outpaces bearish sentiment at a ratio of 3.7 to 1, the highest FOMO level around the token in three months. That shift is striking given the price action offers little obvious reason for optimism.

Santiment pointed to XRP's history of sharp rebounds, ongoing ETF momentum, and continued accumulation from larger holders as the drivers behind the optimism, even as price action stays ugly. Santiment data shows accumulation across all three large cohorts in June despite a 21% price dip, with the 10 million to 100 million XRP tier leading with 160 million XRP added, the strongest bullish signal of the group.

US spot XRP ETFs attracted $22.99 million in net inflows last week, extending their inflow streak to eight consecutive weeks. XRP ETFs have not recorded a single day of net outflows since June 3, although several sessions have ended with flat flows.

Context: A Token Under Pressure XRP entered 2026 in a corrective phase, trending near $1.80, and plunged to the $1.30 range at the start of March as the broader crypto winter triggered. The slide has continued since, with the token now defending a level not seen in over a year and a half.

Santiment said the open question is whether this wallet surge converts into sustained buying pressure or fades as short-term FOMO, and that with XRP sitting so close to $1.00, the coming sessions should reveal which way the on-chain demand breaks.

Sources
XRP Network Growth Surges With Buyers Defending the Key $1 Zone - Crypto Economy
XRP Demand Builds On-Chain Even as Price Sinks to 19-Month Low - Yahoo Finance
XRP Flirts With Falling Below $1 Despite Record Network Growth - Benzinga

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Taiwan’s legislature has enacted a new law establishing comprehensive regulations for crypto platforms and stablecoin issuers, marking a significant shift from the previous anti-money laundering registration system. The legislation introduces a formal licensing regime for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and mandates that stablecoin issuers maintain full reserve backing in domestic financial institutions. The move aligns Taiwan with regional trends towards enhanced oversight of digital assets and indicates a major step into the regulated crypto era. This development is viewed by market participants as a potential boost for Bitcoin and Ethereum, given the positive regulatory clarity in a key Asian market.

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Key Takeaways Taiwan’s regulatory move appears to provide a boost to Bitcoin’s prospects, with market pricing indicating increased confidence in achieving higher price targets. The regulatory clarity in Taiwan suggests a potential increase in institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, which could positively impact future price predictions. Market activity reflects a supportive stance towards Ethereum’s market sentiment, albeit with less direct impact compared to Bitcoin. What to Watch Observers should monitor how the new regulations influence institutional behavior towards Bitcoin and Ethereum in Taiwan. The timeline for existing VASPs to obtain full licenses and achieve regulatory approval could be a key indicator of market adaptation. Further developments in regional regulatory stances may continue to shape market dynamics and influence investor confidence in digital assets.

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When Will Bitcoin Hit 150k

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h June 30, 2026 0.1% — — View market → December 31, 2026 4.2% — — View market → What Price Will Bitcoin Hit Before 2027

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 1.8% — — View market → December 31 2.1% — — View market → December 31 4.7% — — View market → December 31 5.5% — — View market → December 31 6.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 46% — — View market → January 1 2027 8.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.7% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.3% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 7.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 82.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 16.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 64.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 29.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.1% — — View market → January 1 2027 15.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 18.5% — — View market → ⚡ Also Impacted by This Story

Bitcoin future price predictions bullish

2% FLAT

Solana’s validator client is about to get a serious tune-up. Anza, the engineering firm behind the Agave validator software, published the release schedule for Agave v4.2 on June 30, with mainnet feature activations targeting August 17.

What’s actually changing The headline number is slot times. Agave v4.2 will cut them from 400ms to 200ms as part of SIMD-0525. In plain terms, the network’s basic unit of time, the window in which a block leader processes transactions, gets cut in half.

Transaction size limits are also going up. The current ceiling sits at 1,232 bytes, a constraint that has long frustrated developers building complex on-chain applications. The v4.2 upgrade pushes that limit higher, giving developers more room to pack instructions into a single transaction without splitting them across multiple calls.

Then there’s rent. Solana charges accounts a small fee for storing data on-chain, and the upgrade will begin an incremental reduction in those costs.

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Anza CEO Brennan Watt framed v4.2 as one of the most substantial overhauls of the client software, linking it to broader optimizations targeting sub-millisecond latencies. That ambition ties into Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade, which aims to achieve 100-150ms transaction finality. The v4.2 release doesn’t deliver Alpenglow itself, but it lays critical groundwork.

XDP networking hits supermajority On the same day the v4.2 schedule dropped, Anza confirmed that eXpress Data Path networking achieved supermajority stake on Solana’s mainnet. XDP is a high-performance networking framework that processes packets at the kernel level before they hit the traditional networking stack.

Reaching supermajority, meaning validators representing more than two-thirds of staked SOL are running XDP, unlocks a key feature: 100 million compute unit blocks. Anza needed XDP adoption at supermajority levels before the v4.2 features could safely activate. With that threshold now crossed, the August 17 target date becomes realistic rather than aspirational.

Anza’s release cadence Anza ships major updates roughly every six weeks. Agave v4.1 landed around June 26, meaning v4.2 follows almost immediately in the release pipeline.

The firm was formed in early March 2024 after forking from Solana Labs’ validator software. Since then, it has operated as an independent entity focused exclusively on building and maintaining the Agave client.

What this means for investors The XDP supermajority achievement demonstrates that Solana’s validator set is actively coordinating around infrastructure improvements. The risk side of the ledger deserves attention too. Cutting slot times in half is technically demanding. If validators with weaker hardware or connectivity can’t keep up with 200ms slots, the network could see increased skip rates or centralization pressure as smaller operators drop out.

Rent reduction could have outsized effects on DeFi protocols that maintain large numbers of accounts. Lower rent costs reduce the overhead for liquidity pools, order books, and other state-heavy applications.

Investors should watch the August 17 activation closely. Anza’s track record of consistent six-week release cycles suggests the team can hit deadlines, but v4.2 is, by the CEO’s own admission, more ambitious than typical releases.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Strike just threaded the needle. The Bitcoin-focused payments app, founded by Jack Mallers, announced that its European subsidiary, Zap (Strike) Europe Limited, has received full authorization as a crypto-asset service provider from Malta’s Financial Services Authority. The timing is not subtle: the EU’s MiCA transitional period ends on July 1, 2026, meaning any firm without proper authorization will be forced to stop operating across the bloc.

The MiCA bottleneck The Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation is the EU’s first attempt at building a unified rulebook for crypto service providers across all 27 member states. MiCA covers authorization requirements, consumer protections, and operational conduct standards, replacing the prior system of fragmented national rules.

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Out of more than 1,200 registered crypto entities across the EU and European Economic Area, only around 230 to 244 have actually secured full MiCA authorization as of June 2026. That’s roughly a 20% pass rate. The European Securities and Markets Authority made clear there would be no extensions to the transitional period. July 1 is a hard wall, meaning roughly 1,000 previously registered entities are staring down forced operational wind-downs.

Strike’s authorization through Malta’s MFSA gives it passporting rights across the entire bloc. One license, 27 countries.

Strike’s European play Strike began serving eligible European customers back in April 2024, operating under the pre-MiCA patchwork of national regulations. This new authorization replaces that prior arrangement with a single, standardized credential.

The app specializes in Bitcoin-specific services: buying, selling, and payments, with a particular focus on the Lightning Network for faster, cheaper transactions. Jack Mallers has long positioned Strike as a bridge between traditional finance and Bitcoin’s payment rails, particularly through Lightning Network integration. The European authorization extends that thesis to a market of roughly 450 million people.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare has released a quantum-resistant roadmap for Starknet, arguing that other chains will remain exposed if the industry is “too stubborn or stupid” to act.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Starknet framed its three-phased quantum-resistant roadmap as evidence that the crypto industry has no excuse for remaining vulnerable to future quantum computing attacks. 

“The tried-and-tested cryptography exists to secure every crypto key in the world, if necessary changes are made, and the only reason anyone will remain vulnerable is if heads remain buried in the sand,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO at StarkWare. 

Efforts to quantum-proof blockchains are accelerating as some researchers warn that quantum computing could outpace blockchain’s defenses and cryptographically relevant quantum machines could be ready before 2030. 

The Bitcoin community remains divided on how to approach securing old coins against the quantum threat, while other networks are forging ahead with quantum roadmaps. 

Ben-Sasson said Starknet can become resistant to quantum attacks by “seizing on its architecture advantage.” Its underlying cryptography is zero-knowledge STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) proofs, which are “inherently post-quantum safe.”

Ben-Sasson said that if Starknet can become quantum-resistant by “seizing on this cryptography,” then anyone else can do it by choosing the right cryptography. “We need to be nimble in blockchain and crypto,” he said.  

“There’s an awful irony in the notion that a young industry born from rejecting the way things have always been done is stalling and procrastinating about making changes for quantum security.”He added that crypto has an “elliptical illusion,” distorting reality around elliptic-curve cryptography, the current standard for securing blockchains. 

Believing that this will be quantum resistant is “false confidence” that is leaving the industry “dangerously complacent,” he said. 

Some migration problems are genuinely hard, involving technical trade-offs, governance decisions, and dependencies that no single team controls, he added, but said: “difficulty is not an excuse for delay.”

“The crypto industry shouldn’t need wake-up calls from the White House or anyone else. We should all be acting and seizing on the best cryptography that exists.”Starknet’s three-phase roadmap The first phase involves swapping out some of its current security math (Pedersen hashing) for quantum-resistant versions and adding quantum-resistant signatures. 

Phase two focuses on migration tooling that quietly upgrades existing smart contracts to the new quantum-safe standard, without forcing developers to manually rebuild apps. 

Phase three covers dependencies that Starknet cannot resolve alone, which largely depend on Ethereum’s quantum upgrade roadmap. 

Circle, Ethereum, Solana, Tezos and Algorand have all proposed quantum-proof roadmaps, while the Bitcoin community remains at loggerheads. 

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Pump.fun has pulled the plug on its Tokenized Agent launch option, effective immediately. The Solana-based token launchpad says community feedback made the decision clear: too many ways to launch a token was creating toxic player-versus-player dynamics that were hurting everyone involved.

The feature lasted roughly three and a half months. Tokenized Agent launched on March 13, 2026, and was deprecated on June 30, 2026.

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What Tokenized Agent actually did The Tokenized Agent feature let token creators set up AI agents that would take revenue generated by those agents and funnel it back into the token through automated buybacks and burns. Creators could customize the whole thing using a skills.md file, tweaking buyback ratios and burn mechanics to fit their project’s specific needs.

The smart contracts powering these agents operated independently of pump.fun’s direct control. Once set up, they ran on their own.

One important detail: existing tokens that already used the Tokenized Agent feature won’t be affected. Tokens currently in the bonding curve or already migrated to PumpSwap will continue functioning as normal. This is a forward-looking change, not a retroactive one.

A broader simplification push Pump.fun has framed this deprecation as the first step in a larger effort to streamline the platform.

What this means for investors The Tokenized Agent feature offered utility for AI-focused projects looking to build sustainable tokenomics through systematic buybacks and burns. Projects that were planning to use this mechanism now need to find alternative approaches.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Bitcoin’s price chart might still look like an EKG readout, but underneath the drama, something quieter and arguably more important is happening. The network’s actual payment infrastructure is getting busier, faster, and bigger.

On-chain transaction counts have been holding steady in the range of 600,000 to over 800,000 confirmed transactions per day. Meanwhile, the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s Layer-2 scaling solution designed to make payments fast and cheap, processed an estimated $1.17 billion across 5.22 million transactions in November 2025 alone.

Lightning grows up The average transaction size on Lightning nearly doubled year-over-year in 2025, climbing from $118 to $223. That shift matters because it signals the network is being used for real commerce and settlement, not just hobbyist micropayments.

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The most dramatic example came in January 2026, when a $1 million payment was routed through Lightning to the exchange Kraken. That single transaction demonstrated that Lightning can handle large-scale transfers, not just the sub-$50 payments it was initially designed to facilitate.

Channel capacity on the Lightning Network reached multi-year highs of over 5,400 BTC by early 2026. Channel capacity is essentially the amount of Bitcoin locked into Lightning’s payment channels, ready to be used for instant transactions. More capacity means the network can handle larger individual payments and greater aggregate volume without bottlenecks.

Base layer stays busy Daily confirmed transaction counts ranging from 600,000 to over 800,000 suggest that on-chain activity remains robust even when prices are volatile. During previous market downturns, on-chain activity tended to crater alongside price. The current pattern breaks that historical tendency.

The growing use of Bitcoin for cross-border remittances is a particularly notable development. Sending money internationally through conventional channels still involves fees that can eat 5-10% of the transfer amount, plus multi-day settlement times. A Lightning transaction settles in seconds for a fraction of a cent.

What this means for investors The doubling of average Lightning transaction sizes is a leading indicator worth watching. If that trend continues, it means Bitcoin’s payment infrastructure is moving upmarket from consumer micropayments to business-to-business settlement and institutional transfers.

For investors evaluating Bitcoin’s fundamental case, the on-chain data tells a story that price charts alone cannot. Transaction counts aren’t declining during volatile periods. Lightning capacity keeps expanding. Average payment sizes are growing. The network is being used for increasingly serious financial activity, from remittances to million-dollar institutional transfers.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Tue, 30/06/2026 - 15:21

Ripple has joined an unprecedented consortium of over 140 financial, technological, and crypto heavyweights, including BlackRock, Mastercard, Google, and Visa, to adopt "Open USD."

Cover image via U.Today

Ripple has been included on the list of the 140 financial, technological, and crypto heavyweights that will use a new stablecoin that has been dubbed "Open USD." 

The product, which has been backed by titans of the likes of Mastercard, BlackRock, Google, and Visa, and Stripe, aims to address various bottlenecks that have hampered the growth of the stablecoin market (scalability, governance, and other issues). 

 Open Standard, an independent entity, will be responsible for issuing and operating the new stablecoin, meaning that it will not be controlled by a single corporate issuer. 

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A new stablecoin model? The current stablecoin ecosystem often burdens large-scale businesses with prohibitive minting and redemption fees. At the same time, third-party issuers hoard the lucrative yield generated by the underlying cash reserves.

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The new stablecoin is specifically addressing these bottlenecks. Participating businesses will be able to mint and redeem Open USD entirely free of charge. The earnings generated by the stablecoin will be shared by all of the partners. What is notable is that the consortium model also prevents unilateral changes to the protocol. 

TradFi, big tech, and cryptoRipple has notably aligned with traditional payment giants like Mastercard, Visa, and American Express, as well as institutional banking heavyweights like BlackRock and BNY. 

The project also boasts the backing of major tech platforms such as Google, DoorDash, and Shopify, alongside crypto-native firms like Coinbase, Fireblocks, and Solana.

Open USD will offer Ripple a highly liquid rail for cross-border settlement and decentralized finance operations. 

It remains to be seen how Ripple's USD (RLUSD), Ripple's own highly regulated stablecoin with a market cap of $1.4 billion, will fit into this. 

Mastercard has noted that it will require "trusted networks, broad participation, and collaboration across the industry."

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SharpLink has expanded its Ethereum treasury with another 10,000 ETH purchase even as the cryptocurrency has remained on course for its third consecutive quarterly decline.

Summary

SharpLink bought another 10,000 ETH for $16.1 million, increasing its Ethereum holdings to 886,725 ETH. Ethereum is on track for its first-ever third consecutive quarterly loss despite continued treasury accumulation. Bitmine now holds more than 5.7 million ETH, adding to institutional buying as analysts watch the $1,500 support level. According to a company press release, SharpLink acquired the latest 10,000 ETH at an average price of $1,611 per token, spending approximately $16.1 million on the purchase.

The transaction increases the company’s total Ethereum holdings to 886,725 ETH and follows a $75 million capital raise completed through a registered stock offering.

SharpLink continues building its Ethereum treasury Alongside the latest crypto purchase, SharpLink stepped up its capital management efforts by repurchasing more than 2.13 million shares of its common stock, SBET, at an average price of $4.69 per share.

The company said it has now bought back over 4.07 million shares since August 2025. Despite those moves, SBET shares were trading around $4.72 at the time of writing, down nearly 4% on the day.

Source: Yahoo Finance Recent corporate developments have also added to the company’s profile. Earlier this week, SharpLink joined the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes, extending its presence in major U.S. equity benchmarks while continuing to increase its Ethereum reserves.

SharpLink is not the only listed company expanding its exposure to Ethereum. As crypto.news reported on Monday, Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine purchased another 27,084 ETH during the past week, lifting its holdings to more than 5.7 million ETH.

Based on the company’s figures, those reserves now account for about 4.7% of Ethereum’s estimated circulating supply of 120.7 million ETH, bringing Bitmine closer to its previously stated target of holding 5% of the network’s supply.

Earlier this month, crypto.news also examined the implications of treasury companies accumulating increasingly large portions of Ethereum. The report noted that sustained buying could reduce the amount of ETH available for trading, although concentrated ownership may create additional risks if companies later need to fund operations through debt, equity issuance, or asset sales during weaker market conditions.

Ethereum remains under pressure despite corporate buying Even as treasury companies continue adding to their holdings, Ethereum (ETH) has struggled to regain upward momentum. At the time of writing, ETH traded near $1,560, down about 1% on the day and roughly 25% for the quarter.

Ethereum price chart — June 30 | Source: crypto.news Current market performance also places Ethereum on track to record its third straight quarterly loss, a result that would be the first such streak in the asset’s history if the quarter closes at current levels.

Some analysts nevertheless see the recent weakness as a key technical test rather than a definitive breakdown. According to crypto analyst Ted Pillows, Ethereum could stage a relief rally next month if it manages to hold support around $1,500.

The analyst’s chart also outlined the downside risk if that level fails. Under that scenario, Ted Pillows said Ethereum could fall toward $1,400 or lower, underscoring that price direction in the coming weeks may depend on whether buyers continue defending the current support zone despite ongoing accumulation by treasury firms.

Tomorrow marks the end of USDT’s run on regulated European crypto platforms. July 1, 2026, is the hard deadline for the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, and Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin with a market capitalization between $175 billion and $186 billion, never bothered to apply for authorization.

MiCA requires stablecoin issuers to obtain e-money token authorization to operate within the European Economic Area. Without it, exchanges can’t legally offer the token to EEA clients.

Tether has not applied for MiCA authorization as of June 2026, a decision that aligns with its broader posture of focusing on markets outside Europe rather than complying with the bloc’s stringent bank reserve mandates.

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Coinbase Europe delisted USDT back in December 2024. Crypto.com followed in January 2025. Binance’s EEA entity restricted USDT trading pairs in March 2025. Major platforms have already started converting or limiting USDT balances for their European users in anticipation of the final deadline.

Tether also discontinued its euro-denominated stablecoin, EURT, back in 2024, walking away from the European market entirely.

Circle’s USDC and EURC tokens have secured MiCA compliance and remain available across EU-licensed platforms, making Circle’s products the default stablecoin option on regulated exchanges for European traders.

A retail investor using Binance’s European entity will need to switch to USDC or another authorized alternative. A DeFi user interacting directly with smart contracts through a self-custody wallet can keep using USDT, as the regulation targets service providers, not the token itself. No legal actions against Tether itself have been reported in connection with MiCA compliance.

USDT has long been the dominant trading pair denomination across crypto markets globally. When European platforms remove it, trading volumes on those platforms will shift to USDC-denominated pairs or other compliant alternatives.

Tether’s calculus appears to be that the cost of MiCA compliance, particularly the reserve requirements mandating funds be held in European banks, outweighs the revenue from European platform activity. Institutional players and regulated funds operating within the EEA don’t have the option of routing around compliance requirements by switching to non-custodial wallets, making USDC the only compliant option for that segment of the market.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

THORChain Podcast #198: Live Monero Demo ft. jpthor & KentonC137 | May 14, 2026 | Watch the full episode on YouTube

By Raynalytics

TL;DRJP ran a live Monero demo on a 7-node THORChain chainnet with real funds, executing the first end-to-end decentralized $RUNE to $XMR swap with full vault auditability across signing and non-signing nodes.The implementation uses a deterministic view key (SHA-512 of "thorchain view key") plus on-chain key images and per-transaction signing keys to make every Monero inbound, outbound, and vault balance publicly auditable.Monero runs as a Rust sidecar alongside Bifrost, built on Luke Parker's Serai signing stack and the Monero Oxide wallet library, plumbed into THORChain by Boone.JP and Chad disagree on running multiple Asgard vaults versus a single vault for Monero, a question to be resolved before the mainnet rollout.The code is functional today, but mainnet is gated on more stress testing. When it ships, expect a guarded launch with small pools.Where things stand (June 2026): This recap revisits JP's live demo from May 14. In the weeks since, Chad Barraford confirmed on THORSday #209 that Monero now works end-to-end on the chainnet test environment, with real $XMR swaps, liquidity adds and removes, and churns all confirmed. A live $XMR launch is targeted for roughly a month after THORChain's trading restart, barring a bug that forces a v3.20 change, with Zcash ($ZEC) one to two weeks behind. Mainnet is not live yet.

IntroductionThis was not a typical podcast episode. JP joined Kenton and ran a fully live Monero implementation on a real-fund chainnet: seven nodes churning, two Asgard vaults, key gens, key signings, the works. By the end of the call, JP had executed the first end-to-end decentralized $RUNE to $XMR swap, audited the transaction with a key image and a signing key, and confirmed his receiving wallet got paid. This was THORChain producing the proof that years of Monero integration work actually delivers.

What follows is a recap of the architecture, the audit primitives, the live result, and the open questions still on the table before mainnet.

1. The Live Demo: Seven Nodes, Real Funds, Real SwapJP began by tearing down his existing chainnet and redeploying it from scratch. The deploy spooled up seven THORChain nodes and one genesis vault, then churned into a six-active-node, two-Asgard-vault configuration. He added 0.5 $XMR and 500 $RUNE to each active vault, waited for confirmations, then fired off a 100 $RUNE to $XMR swap back to his own Monero wallet.

It worked. The signing nodes generated the transaction, produced a key image and a transaction signing key, propagated those to the non-signing nodes for verification, then settled the outbound. JP pasted his recipient address and the transaction key into a Monero block explorer's proof-of-payment tool and confirmed receipt.

"Real money, real funds. I love it when a plan comes together." (JP)Across all seven nodes, signing, non-signing, and standby, the reported $XMR balance converged. The on-chain vault state matched the actual Monero wallet state, and gas accounting was correct. After the swap, the protocol began an unhalted churn, generating two new Asgard vaults and migrating funds in multiple rounds without breaking auditability.

2. How THORChain Audits Monero Without a Privacy BackdoorThe core challenge with Monero on a transparent chain is making the vault state verifiable, since Monero hides addresses and amounts by default. JP's solution rests on three primitives.

Deterministic view key. Every THORChain Monero vault uses the same private view key, derived from SHA-512("thorchain view key"). It is global and public, so anyone can see inbounds to any THORChain Monero vault and confirm the amounts. Standard Monero wallets never expose their view key. THORChain's vaults do, by design.

Key images. A view key alone does not reveal when outputs are spent. For every inbound, THORChain kicks off a key image ceremony, essentially a 2/3 threshold ceremony similar to a key signing ceremony. The resulting key image is stored on-chain. When that key image later appears as spent on the Monero blockchain, anyone can audit the vault's debits.

Transaction signing keys. For every outbound a signing subset produces, they also generate a transaction signing key and propagate it to the non-signing nodes. Plug the transaction key plus the recipient address into a Monero proof tool, and the destination and amount are verifiable. This is how the rest of the network confirms the signers did what they were supposed to, and did not reroute funds.

Put together, these three primitives let anyone audit every Monero inbound, every spent output, and every outbound on every THORChain vault, in real time. As Kenton summarized it on the call:

"THORChain doesn't become more private by adding Monero. THORChain is actually bringing more publicity to the Monero transactions that occur on THORChain. Anything private has to happen on the Monero chain itself." (Kenton)JP agreed:

"THORChain actually honestly doesn't know that Monero is a privacy chain. THORChain thinks Monero is just literally Bitcoin." (JP)The audit model is what makes the integration possible. Without it, JP noted, the nodes could just steal.

3. Architecture: A Rust Sidecar Built on Serai and Monero OxideMonero is the first chain client where THORChain runs a dedicated sidecar process alongside the Go-based Bifrost. The sidecar is written in Rust because it needs to host the FROST signing engine for Monero, and because the entire Rust Monero stack is more mature than any Go equivalent. Bifrost orchestrates: it tells the sidecar when to key gen, when to key sign, with what amount and to what address. The sidecar executes.

The foundation is Luke Parker's work. Luke, the lead developer of Serai, built both the modular FROST stack THORChain depends on for threshold key generation and signing, and Monero Oxide, the Rust-based Monero wallet library THORChain uses for everything from view key derivation to vault address generation to transaction construction, decoy selection, and fee computation.

"All the Monero stuff is based on Luke's work. We just kind of plumbed it into THORChain's semantics." (JP)Boone did the plumbing. JP credited Boone explicitly for taking Luke's libraries and adapting them to THORChain's Bifrost architecture.

THORChain also runs a fork of the Monero TS wallet library, published on the THORChain GitHub, which adds 255-byte TX extras. That is the change that lets THORChain memos ride alongside Monero transactions. Any wallet integrating Monero with THORChain needs roughly three lines of code to adopt the same pattern, and 255-byte memos are already valid on the Monero base layer, JP noted, which most integrators do not realize.

4. Handling Monero's QuirksMonero behaves differently from Bitcoin in ways the implementation has to absorb.

10-block lock per UTXO. Every Monero output is locked for 10 blocks after receipt, roughly 20 minutes. The signers track lock state per UTXO and refuse to sign until the spendable balance is available. THORChain does not see the lock directly; it just schedules the outbound and the signers say "talk to me in nine blocks." If one vault is fully locked, THORChain reschedules the transaction to the other active vault. Streaming swaps are not affected, JP confirmed, because Chad recently shipped a feature that begins the streaming swap clock as soon as the deposit kicks off confirmation counting.

Gas budget. Monero gas accounting is hard, so THORChain hardcodes a 120,000-unit budget per outbound, about 42 cents at current prices. Real transactions usually come in closer to 4 cents, so there is a roughly 10x buffer. Simple, predictable, slightly overpaid.

Zero-output change. Every Monero transaction must have two outputs (the real destination plus a dummy from a decoy ring). When THORChain does not actually need a change output, it produces a zero-amount second output and ignores it on the receiving side. This applies to consolidations, migrations, and any one-recipient outbound.

Consolidation strategy. JP proposes consolidating 10 UTXOs down to 5 at a time rather than larger batches. Gas scales linearly with UTXOs, and so does signing time. Keeping consolidations bounded keeps both manageable.

Birthday-based scanning. Each Monero vault saves its creation block height on-chain. Sidecars scan from that birthday forward rather than from Monero genesis. A rescan mode lets any node rebuild its sidecar inventory from scratch by pulling addresses, birthdays, key images, and the view key from THORChain itself. JP says he has tested it ad nauseam.

Old vault refunds. If someone sends Monero to a retired vault, THORChain cannot auto-refund because it cannot identify the sender address. The funds flow to the latest active vault instead, available for a manual treasury refund if the sender produces their transaction private key to prove ownership.

5. Single Vault or Multiple? An Open DebateThe most consequential open question from the episode: should THORChain run one Monero vault or many?

JP's position is to run multiple Asgard vaults, the same way Bitcoin and Ethereum work today. Multiple vaults give the network redundancy when 10-block UTXO locks tie up one vault's spendable balance, and they limit the impact of any single signer set going offline. The trade-off is more key gens, more key image ceremonies, and unproven scalability of FROST Monero across all 100 nodes simultaneously.

Chad's position is to run a single vault. With one vault, every node is a signer, which lets the implementation skip the multi-vault key image generation overhead and simplify the protocol surface area.

Kenton pushed back on the disconnect directly, telling JP that he and Chad clearly need to sort this out: Chad is saying one vault, JP is saying multiple. JP indicated multiple is more aligned with how the other chain clients already work, and that moving to a DKLS-based ECDSA TSS library could eventually make single-vault designs viable. He will continue the conversation with Chad before mainnet, and Kenton suggested running both configurations on mainnet for a few weeks each to observe behavior. The decision is open.

6. AI-Assisted Development, and the "Vibe Coded" QuestionJP addressed criticism that the Monero implementation is "vibe coded" head-on. His view: AI tooling (Claude, Codex, GPT 5.5) lets him work an order of magnitude faster than five years ago, when the team spent a year building the original Bitcoin Bifrost. Tasks that used to require hand-grepping logs across 100 nodes now take minutes when AI can crawl them.

But the workflow is not hands-off. JP described it as juggling, with constant supervision required: one slip and the whole thing crashes down. He uses separate AI conversations per stack component and trains each with project-specific skills.

"The code only works if it's correct. If it didn't work, then you would not see these correct numbers. Gas accounting would be wrong, the balances wouldn't match." (JP)Kenton's framing: it does not matter whether the code starts as vibe-coded or hand-written. What matters is whether it gets reviewed, tested, and verified to work. By that test, the Monero implementation is human-approved code regardless of how the first draft was produced.

7. Future-Proofing for FCMP++ and CarrotAn audience question raised the upcoming Monero hardfork, which introduces FCMP++ (Full-Chain Membership Proofs Plus Plus) and the Carrot addressing protocol. Carrot adds outgoing view keys, forward secrecy, and other privacy and usability features while maintaining backward compatibility with existing Monero addresses.

JP's expectation is that the upgrade should be plug-and-play for THORChain. Luke Parker's Serai and Monero Oxide stacks will absorb the changes upstream. When the hardfork ships, THORChain will pause Monero trading, upgrade its sidecar dependencies, and unpause, with no expected protocol-level rework on THORChain's side and no expected long downtime.

What to WatchMore stress testing on chainnet. JP planned to run automated scripts that throw every edge case at the implementation: bad memos, wrong gas, old vault refunds, mismatched routing. If solvency holds after sustained abuse, the path to mainnet is clear.JP and Chad converging on vault architecture. Single vault or multiple is unresolved and material. Watch for a follow-up between them.Chainnet to stagenet to mainnet rollout. The chainnet code is the mainnet code, and the deploy pattern is identical. Mainnet is a confidence question, not a code question.A guarded launch when live. Expect small pools and small trades at first. JP and Kenton both flagged that Monero could need several months on mainnet before it is fully battle-tested.FCMP++ and Carrot hardfork handling. Monero's hardfork is on the near-term horizon. The plan is a brief THORChain pause for sidecar upgrades, then resume."We could launch this on mainnet tomorrow. It just depends on how confident we are that we're not going to hit a bug." (JP)More THORChain data, check out raynalytics.net

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Nasdaq-listed crypto treasury firm Solana Company has signed a significant cooperation agreement to aid the development of Alatau City, Kazakhstan’s planned, digital-focused megacity. The partnership was unveiled during the Alatau City Roadshow held this June in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, highlighting Solana Company’s ambition to support the region’s expansive digital infrastructure plans.

Agreement scope definedUnder the memorandum of understanding, both parties will work to advise on establishing blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure for Alatau City. The roadshow events in China also resulted in a total of 30 partnership agreements with a combined investment potential exceeding $6 billion.

Joseph Chee, Chairman and CEO of Solana Company, expressed his expectations to deepen the partnership and expand the Solana ecosystem’s presence across the region.

The collaboration between Solana Company and Alatau City will cover four main areas: digital asset treasury solutions, blockchain infrastructure deployment, accelerating institutional adoption of blockchain technology, and developing robust digital platforms for the city.

Alisher Abdykadyrov, CEO of the Alatau City Authority, specified that the agreement also includes Solana Company’s participation in the Alatau Crypto Cluster. This cluster is envisioned as a designated pilot zone and economic area within the new city, where the use of cryptocurrencies for daily transactions will be permitted.

Ties between Kazakhstan and Solana deepenThe agreement marks the latest move strengthening Kazakhstan’s relationship with the broader Solana ecosystem. Notably, last year saw the launch of Central Asia’s inaugural Solana Economic Zone in the nation’s capital of Astana, established in partnership with the Solana Foundation.

Just last week, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) introduced its first Solana ETF, providing investors access to regulated investment instruments linked to SOL price movements—making Central Asia’s major exchanges more accessible to digital asset investors.

Mini Glossary: An ETF is an exchange-traded fund tracking the performance of an asset or index. A Solana ETF allows investors regulated access to SOL’s price moves without direct token custody.

During the same roadshow, the Solana Foundation also signed a separate memorandum of understanding with Alatau City, pledging support to expand the city’s blockchain capacity and infrastructure.

Alatau City’s ambitious vision faces cautious realitiesKazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev introduced the Alatau City project to the international community in May 2024. However, despite its global unveiling, the project remains in the early stages of planning and development, with many fundamentals still under consideration.

Plans envision Alatau City as an integrated smart city from the outset, anchored on artificial intelligence, digital identity, and blockchain technology. The project also foresees the use of low-altitude aerial vehicles, robotaxis, and autonomous drones for transportation and logistics, while proposing that the city’s economy be powered by hydrogen energy.

Nonetheless, the initiative faces significant hurdles. Independent assessment reports released in March highlighted concerns from both the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Agency for Financial Monitoring about the potential need for constitutional amendments to support a crypto-based economy.

Additional independent sources have pointed to ongoing fundamental infrastructure issues in Alatau City’s designated region, such as continued challenges in accessing basic utilities like natural gas, water, electricity, and internet. While the project’s vision remains compelling for the future, these obstacles suggest considerable implementation timelines ahead.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Solana is now processing roughly 100 million non-vote transactions per day, sustaining real-time throughput between 1,200 and 1,900 TPS, and pulling in $100 million in fees.

By June 2026, daily non-vote transactions averaged 102.7 million. Daily active addresses have ranged between 2 and 5 million throughout 2026, with peaks surpassing 4 million users on a single day.

What the numbers actually mean TPS figures can be misleading in crypto. Most chains inflate throughput by counting validator votes alongside real user transactions. Solana separates the two, which makes the 100 million daily non-vote figure the honest version of network activity.

The sustained TPS range sits between 1,000 and 4,000, with real-time snapshots consistently landing in the 1,200 to 1,900 band.

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Applications built on top of Solana generated $2.39 billion in revenue during 2025, a 46% year-over-year increase. Seven individual applications each crossed the $100 million revenue threshold.

The infrastructure behind the activity Solana’s development team has been incrementally raising block compute limits, with proposals targeting around 100 million compute units per block.

The demand driving these upgrades is not coming from one source. DeFi protocols, stablecoin transfers, and payment applications are all contributing to baseline network load.

The network has also weathered a broader industry-wide compression in fee revenue that hit most Layer-1 chains. Solana maintained $100 million in fees during a period when competitors were watching their fee income shrink.

What investors should be watching Seven Solana-based applications each generating over $100 million in revenue individually is the kind of ecosystem depth that took Ethereum years to develop.

The daily active address range of 2 to 5 million creates a volatile but high floor for network engagement. Sustained activity above 4 million daily addresses would signal the high-end numbers are becoming the baseline.

Solana has kept fees low by design, which drives adoption but also caps per-transaction revenue. The network’s ability to compensate through raw volume, 100 million transactions daily, is currently working.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Investment firm Spiko has integrated Coinbase’s stablecoin payment infrastructure into two regulated EU Treasury-bill funds, allowing eligible investors to fund subscriptions and receive redemption proceeds using USDC and EURC. 

Coinbase said Tuesday the integration covers Spiko’s EU T-Bills Money Market Fund and US T-Bills Money Market Fund. Both are structured as Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, or UCITS. Coinbase Payments will provide the payment, wallet and application programming interface (API) infrastructure, with the transactions settling on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 network. 

The exchange said the products are the first UCITS funds in Europe to accept direct stablecoin payments.

The move into UCITS funds comes as net sales of the assets rebounded in April, the latest data from trade group EFAMA showed on Monday. UCITS saw net inflows of 104 billion euros that month, compared to net outflows of 41 billion euros in March. Net sales reached a new record in 2025, totaling 828 billion euros and surpassing the previous 2021 high of 813 billion euros.

Tokenized funds push toward 24/7 utilityCoinbase described the integration as an example of how stablecoins could reshape payments infrastructure for mutual funds by removing bottlenecks for investors as they enter and exit a product.  It positions stablecoins as settlement infrastructure, connecting onchain capital with regulated investment funds. 

Investors can submit subscriptions at any time, including weekends and holidays. At the same time, redemption proceeds can be delivered to a stablecoin wallet within minutes after a position is liquidated. 

Despite this, round-the-clock stablecoin transfers do not necessarily mean that the underlying fund continuously processes subscriptions and redemptions. Spiko said the Coinbase integration introduces a new payment method rather than changing the funds themselves.

Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase for more information on order execution, but did not receive a response before publication. 

Other asset managers have tested ways to provide 24/7 access to tokenized funds. In February, WisdomTree received approval for round-the-clock secondary trading and instant USDC settlement of its tokenized Treasury fund, with liquidity supplied by its broker-dealer while primary fund processes remained unchanged. 

Tokenized money market funds are also increasingly being used as infrastructure beyond subscriptions and redemptions. In February, Franklin Templeton and Binance introduced a program allowing institutions to pledge tokenized fund shares as off-exchange trading collateral while the assets remain in regulated custody

Magazine: China’s 107 Bitcoin memory thief, Bithumb CEO booked: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Victoria, Seychelles, June 30th, 2026, Chainwire

MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, today announced the listing of Ondo’s tokenized Strategy’s preferred stock on its spot market, further expanding its tokenized U.S. stock offerings.

STRCON tracks Strategy Pref (STRC), Strategy’s preferred stock. The company formerly known as MicroStrategy, Inc., is the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin, with holdings of 847,363 BTC as of June 21, 2026, according to company filings. The STRCON/USDT spot trading pair will be listed at 14:00 (UTC) on June 30, 2026. Deposits opened earlier the same day at 08:00 (UTC). Full listing details are available in MEXC’s official announcement.

Ondo Global Markets is a tokenization platform focused on bringing real-world assets on-chain. It provides non-U.S. investors with instant access to tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs, and other securities. Ondo Global Markets surpassed $1 billion in total value locked in May 2026 and accounts for more than 70% of the tokenized equity issuer market, according to RWA.xyz data. MEXC’s ongoing collaboration with Ondo continues to expand access to the U.S. stock market for users through tokenized assets.

As a one-stop trading platform, MEXC is committed to providing users with diverse access to global markets. Beyond Ondo’s tokenized U.S. equities, MEXC also offers “RealStocks,” a product that allows users to hold real share ownership and dividends within the crypto trading environment they already use.

About MEXC

MEXC is the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchange, trusted by more than 40 million users across 170+ markets. Built on a user-first philosophy, MEXC offers industry-leading 0-fee trading and access to over 3,000 digital assets. As the Gateway to Infinite Opportunities, MEXC provides a single platform where users can easily trade cryptocurrencies alongside tokenized assets, including stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals.

MEXC Official Website｜ X ｜ Telegram ｜How to Sign Up on MEXC

For media inquiries, please contact MEXC PR team: [email protected]

Risk Disclaimer:

This content does not constitute investment advice. Given the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market, investors are encouraged to carefully assess market fluctuations, project fundamentals, and potential financial risks before making any trading decisions.

11h35 ▪ 7 min read ▪ by Ghiles A.

Summarize this article with:

Bolivia changes its monetary strategy after fifteen years of artificial stability. The country abandons its fixed peg to the dollar due to the decline of its reserves and economic pressure. This decision also revives the debate around financial alternatives like Bitcoin, as cryptocurrencies advance in economies facing currency tensions. The new exchange rate regime marks a new stage for the boliviano and transforms the country’s monetary environment.

In Brief Bolivia abandons its fixed peg to the Dollar after fifteen years to adopt a flexible exchange rate regime due to the exhaustion of its reserves. The end of monetary control occurs as the gap between the official rate and the parallel market Dollar rate has widened significantly. The lifting of restrictions on cryptocurrencies in 2024 caused a strong rise in trading volumes and accelerated the adoption of stablecoins in the country. Bolivian banks are beginning to integrate services related to digital assets, notably USDT, amid financial transformation. Facing currency tensions, Bitcoin appears as a strategic reserve considered by several states and could be a diversification path for Bolivia. Bolivia Abandons Its Dollar Peg After Fifteen Years of Control The US dollar just took another hard hit in Bolivia, where it played a central role in the fixed exchange system established since 2011. The country has just ended this system. The Minister of Economy José Gabriel Espinoza announced in a press release the abandonment of the official rate of about 6.96 bolivianos per US dollar. The country now adopts a flexible floating exchange rate regime, with a rate determined by market forces. This decision comes as the old mechanism no longer reflected the economic reality.

Before this announcement, the Central Bank’s reference rate had already exceeded 10 bolivianos per dollar. The gap between the official exchange rate and the parallel market had significantly increased, reaching about 12.9 to 13.1 bolivianos per dollar by late 2025. The old monetary system could no longer maintain sustainable stability. The government chose a new approach to address accumulated imbalances.

The fixed exchange rate regime worked when Bolivia had enough reserves to support its currency. In 2014, foreign exchange reserves exceeded 15 billion dollars, giving the central bank the means to defend the official rate. Since then, reserves have sharply decreased, reducing their intervention capacity. Rising budget deficits also made maintaining this model increasingly difficult.

The shift to a flexible system is part of a broader economic stabilization strategy. This evolution could also accompany new dealings with international financial institutions. For Bolivian authorities, the goal is to restore a balance between the official market and economic reality. This transformation also opens a new chapter for alternative monetary solutions.

The Rise of Cryptocurrencies Accelerates in the Country For ten years, Bolivia had banned virtual assets on its territory. The situation changed in June 2024, when the central bank lifted restrictions with resolution no. 082/2024 from its board. This opening quickly changed the local financial landscape. Users began exploring cryptocurrencies more as a tool for protection against monetary tensions.

Transaction volumes via official channels rose from 46.5 million dollars in the first half of 2024 to 294 million dollars in the first half of 2025. This increase represents a rise of over 530% in one year. The Bolivian crypto market thus developed a new dynamic after the end of restrictions. Local players gradually adopted new digital uses.

In April 2026, three Bolivian banks already offered services related to USDT. This evolution shows that stablecoins now hold an important place in the national financial ecosystem. Bolivia’s central bank also signed a memorandum of understanding with El Salvador’s National Digital Assets Commission in 2025. The country thus seeks to better understand opportunities related to digital assets.

The disappearance of the fixed rate could, however, change the demand for cryptocurrencies. If citizens can access foreign currencies at market price via official channels, the use of certain stablecoins as protection against dollar shortages could evolve. However, the infrastructure built in recent years remains in place. Users now have digital wallets and master virtual asset transactions.

This situation shows that monetary crises can accelerate stablecoin adoption. Bolivia thus becomes a case observed by crypto market players. Investors now monitor volume evolution after the exchange regime reform. Continued institutional demand around USDT could confirm the lasting establishment of cryptocurrencies in the local financial system.

And Why Not Bitcoin as a New Strategic Reserve? Beyond stablecoins, Bitcoin appears as a monetary alternative used by several states seeking to diversify their reserves. Unlike traditional currencies, its supply is limited to 21 million units. This characteristic makes it a digital asset considered by some governments as a long-term store of value. Its decentralized operation represents a major difference from currencies controlled by central banks.

The United States has integrated Bitcoin into its strategic thinking around national digital asset reserves. This approach is based on the idea that an asset independent from the classic monetary system can strengthen a country’s financial diversification. El Salvador has also placed Bitcoin at the core of its monetary policy since its official adoption. The country continues accumulating Bitcoin reserves totaling 7,696.37 BTC in a logic of financial sovereignty despite IMF pressures.

Bhutan is also among the countries that have developed significant exposure to Bitcoin. Thanks to its energy resources, the country has participated in the development of Bitcoin mining and holds this digital asset in its reserves. This strategy shows that some states now consider Bitcoin a new financial instrument on the same level as certain traditional reserves. The objective is to have an alternative asset in the face of global economic uncertainty.

In this context, Bolivia could also consider Bitcoin as a complementary tool to strengthen the diversification of its reserves. After abandoning its dollar peg and facing difficulties in maintaining sufficient foreign currency levels, the country has an opportunity to explore new financial mechanisms. A Bitcoin reserve would not replace traditional currencies but could offer additional protection against tensions on international markets.

For Bolivia, progressively integrating Bitcoin into a national strategy could represent a new step in modernizing its financial system. The experience of other countries shows that a digital asset can become a diversification instrument when framed by a clear policy. As the country seeks to restore economic stability, BTC could become an additional component of its strategic reserves alongside traditional assets.

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Ghiles A.

Journaliste et rédacteur web passionné par l’univers des cryptomonnaies et des technologies Web3. J’y traite les dernières tendances et actualités afin de proposer un contenu de haute qualité à un large public du secteur.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Ripple is expanding its presence and corporate relationships in Asia amid surging interest in blockchain-based payment infrastructures. As central banks, regulatory authorities, and major financial firms across the region increasingly turn to digital asset-focused payment solutions, Ripple’s profile and influence have become more visible than ever.

Digital currency conversations pick up speed in ThailandOne of the most significant examples of this trend is Thailand, where digital currency initiatives are accelerating. The Bank of Thailand is working towards launching a one-to-one baht-backed stablecoin by 2027. While it has not been confirmed that Ripple will provide the technology infrastructure for this project, the company has emerged as a key policy stakeholder in shaping Thailand’s digital currency agenda.

Ripple responded to the Bank of Thailand’s 2021 central bank digital currency (CBDC) discussion paper, highlighting the importance of interoperability with international payment standards to enable smoother cross-border transactions. The company also proposed a two-tier CBDC model in which the central bank issues the currency, while licensed financial institutions handle distribution and customer service.

Mini glossary: CBDC refers to digital forms of a central bank’s official currency. A stablecoin is a digital asset typically pegged to a fiat currency.

Additionally, Ripple has unveiled its CBDC platform built on the XRP Ledger, touting advantages for central banks such as faster settlement, reduced operating costs, greater scalability, and increased energy efficiency. The ongoing dialogue between Ripple and Thai central bank officials—inclusive of recent policy events held with TRM Labs—underscores the deepening engagement between the parties.

Ripple advocates for a CBDC model that is both interoperable with international payment standards and operates on two levels to ensure seamless cross-border transactions.

Japan emerges as a strategic hubRipple’s expansion in Asia is by no means limited to Thailand. The company has established partnerships with banks, payment service providers, and financial institutions across markets such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Regional government openness to CBDCs, tokenized assets, and blockchain-based payment networks is driving even greater value to Ripple’s growing ecosystem.

Japan stands out as a particularly strong strategic base for Ripple. The country’s financial giant SBI Holdings has long been a major investor in Ripple and has supported the company’s payment solutions across Asia. In a move that extends its influence further into the digital asset sector, the SBI Group recently agreed to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank in a deal valuing the company at $289 million. As a leading Japan-based finance conglomerate, SBI Holdings operates across banking, investment, and digital finance sectors.

RLUSD approval draws the spotlightRipple has made a noteworthy move in Japan’s stablecoin market as well. The company’s RLUSD stablecoin has become the first US dollar-pegged stablecoin to receive regulatory approval for domestic distribution in the country. This marks a pivotal milestone as Japan advances its framework for digital assets.

As Asian economies modernize their payment infrastructures, Ripple’s relationships with regulators, its network of corporate alliances, and its blockchain innovations strengthen its foothold in the region. The deepening ties in both Japan and Thailand suggest that Asia could emerge as Ripple’s most significant growth engine in the years ahead.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs hemorrhaged $231 million on June 29, extending a painful streak to eight consecutive days of net withdrawals. Spot Ethereum ETFs joined the exodus with $30 million leaving the same day, according to data from SoSoValue.

The June rout by the numbers The $231 million Bitcoin outflow on June 29 wasn’t even the worst single day this month. On June 10, Bitcoin ETFs saw $214 million in redemptions while Ethereum products lost $35.6 million.

June 2026 is on pace for over $4 billion in total outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs. That would make it the largest monthly decline since these products first hit the market in January 2024.

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BlackRock’s IBIT, the dominant fund in the space, has been a significant contributor to the recent redemptions.

On the Ethereum side, the $30.043 million net outflow on June 29 is smaller in absolute terms but still part of a broader negative trend. Ethereum ETFs have historically shown mixed flow patterns, oscillating between modest inflows and outflows. But June has tilted firmly negative.

What’s driving the pullback The short answer: macroeconomics. Rising interest rates make safe-haven assets like Treasury bonds more attractive relative to volatile ones like crypto. When a money market fund pays you a competitive yield for doing essentially nothing, the case for sitting in Bitcoin through a choppy stretch gets harder to make, especially for institutional allocators who answer to risk committees and compliance officers.

What’s changed is the duration and consistency of the selling. Previous outflow episodes tended to reverse within a few days as dip-buyers stepped in. Eight straight days without a positive session suggests something more structural is happening beneath the surface.

What this means for investors For traders watching this space, a few things are worth monitoring closely. First, whether the outflow streak breaks. Second, keep an eye on IBIT specifically. BlackRock’s fund is the bellwether for institutional sentiment in crypto ETFs.

Third, watch the macro calendar. Any shift in Fed rate expectations, whether from economic data surprises or central bank commentary, could rapidly change the calculus for institutional allocators. Crypto’s correlation with rate-sensitive assets means that a dovish surprise could reverse outflows just as quickly as hawkish expectations triggered them.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Key Highlights Over 6,100 fresh wallet addresses joined Chainlink’s network within a 48-hour window, representing the most significant expansion spike of 2026. Analytics from Santiment reveal LINK has surpassed 892,800 active wallets on Ethereum, with more than 8,000 new addresses appearing in just five days. This rapid user base expansion occurs while LINK’s market value hovers near recent bottom levels, trading around $7.30. Chainlink’s technology plays a central role in the real-world asset tokenization sector, which has expanded by over 100% since the beginning of 2025. Major financial players including the DTCC, UBS, and Mastercard are actively collaborating with Chainlink to develop tokenized asset systems. Chainlink’s ecosystem is experiencing a remarkable surge in user adoption despite its token continuing to struggle with price performance. Recent analytics indicate the network onboarded 6,100 new unique wallet addresses within a mere two-day period. This represents the most aggressive user acquisition rate the protocol has registered throughout 2026.

Chainlink (LINK) Price Address growth serves as a fundamental metric for gauging network adoption and genuine usage, distinct from speculative price movements. It’s entirely possible for a digital asset to experience downward price pressure while simultaneously expanding its active user community. This divergence appears to be exactly what Chainlink is demonstrating at present.

Santiment Intelligence, a respected blockchain data analytics platform, published findings highlighting this unusual pattern. The firm’s official account noted that Chainlink’s address count has entered a “parabolic” growth phase. Their data indicates LINK on the Ethereum network has reached 892,800 wallets containing balances, representing an influx of over 8,000 new holders within a five-day timeframe.

✍️ TL;DR: Chainlink’s holder count has gone parabolic
📊 Metrics used: Total Holders
🔗 Link to chart: https://t.co/dtIQSALghS

📈 Chainlink’s holder growth is suddenly accelerating in a big way. $LINK on Ethereum is now up to 892.8K non-empty wallets, adding more than 8K holders… pic.twitter.com/rr4POGHn9a

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) June 29, 2026

Breaking Down The User Growth Metrics Analysts at Santiment observed that maintaining the current velocity, Chainlink could breach the 900,000 holder threshold before the current week concludes. Their projections further suggest that if this momentum sustains, the network might achieve the 1 million holder milestone by the conclusion of the summer season.

The Santiment analysis also drew connections between this adoption wave and recent institutional developments. The report referenced Project Pangea, ongoing DTCC collateral initiatives, the expansion of tokenized financial products, and around-the-clock equity data delivery systems as catalysts driving renewed interest. The analysts suggested that this pattern of accumulation during price weakness often precedes broader market recognition and momentum shifts.

LINK has experienced approximately 20% depreciation over the trailing three-month period. Current market data shows the token exchanging hands at $7.30, a significant decline from its 52-week peak of $27.70.

$LINK is back in the same monthly accumulation zone that preceded its previous explosive rallies.

If history repeats, a breakout from this base could open the path toward the $30+ region. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/bsQxpzsw9j

— FOUR | Crypto Spaces (@X_Four_iv) June 29, 2026

Despite facing downward price pressure, Chainlink continues advancing its position within the real-world asset tokenization ecosystem. This emerging sector involves representing traditional asset ownership—including equities, fixed income instruments, and property—on distributed ledger technology. The tokenized asset market has experienced explosive growth, expanding from $15.2 billion in early 2025 to $32.2 billion currently.

Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are actively developing platforms for tokenized equity offerings. The DTCC, the critical infrastructure provider for securities clearing and settlement operations, has established a strategic partnership with Chainlink to construct the technical foundation for continuous trading capabilities.

Understanding Chainlink’s Infrastructure Position Chainlink provides oracle services and connectivity solutions that bridge blockchain networks with external data sources and traditional systems. Its technology operates across both permissionless public blockchains like Ethereum and permissioned private networks deployed by financial institutions.

🐋 WHALE WATCH: RWA IS THE UNDISPUTED WINNING NARRATIVE OF 2026!

The market is entirely distracted. $LINK is somehow down -35% YTD despite locking in 15 massive institutional partners this year.

The TradFi partnerships prove the adoption is real: $ONDO: Broadridge J.P.… pic.twitter.com/TYKRL9WWEU

— Whale Factor (@WhaleFactor) June 28, 2026

This interoperability proves crucial as traditional financial institutions explore both public and private blockchain architectures. Chainlink’s technology stack accommodates both paradigms, positioning the protocol to capture value regardless of which model achieves dominance.

The protocol’s institutional partnership roster features prominent names including UBS, Mastercard, and various U.S. government entities. Chainlink also claims its infrastructure underpins over 70% of decentralized finance applications currently operational.

Market strategists specializing in blockchain metrics caution that wallet proliferation in isolation doesn’t guarantee imminent price appreciation. They emphasize that on-chain transaction volumes, accumulation behaviors, and technical price structure must all align to validate a sustainable trend reversal.

Currently, Chainlink’s wallet metrics continue their upward trajectory while the token’s market price remains anchored near multi-month support levels. The immediate data point market participants are monitoring is whether the network successfully crosses the 900,000 holder mark by week’s end, as current growth rates indicate is probable.

Circle just pulled a quarter-billion dollars worth of USDC off Ethereum and stamped out $910 million in fresh tokens on Solana. Think of it as moving cash between registers at a store, except the registers are blockchains and the cash is the second-largest stablecoin in crypto.

The net effect: a $660 million liquidity swing toward Solana.

How the burn-and-mint machine works Circle manages USDC supply through what it calls the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, or CCTP. The mechanics are straightforward: burn tokens on one chain, mint an equivalent amount on another. Every USDC in circulation is supposed to be backed 1:1 by cash and cash equivalents, so these operations don’t change the total supply. They just change where the tokens live.

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The $250 million Ethereum burn and $910 million Solana issuance fit a pattern that’s been accelerating throughout 2026. Earlier in June, Circle minted $1 billion USDC on Solana in a single day. Days before that, there was a $500 million Solana mint. The cumulative gross issuance on Solana has been approaching $57 billion for the year.

USDC’s total circulation sits at approximately $73.6 billion as of late June 2026. The stablecoin is now native on over 30 networks.

Why the migration matters The institutional angle has gotten more concrete this month. Circle expanded its partnership with BNY Mellon in June 2026, enabling direct mint and burn capabilities through the bank’s custody services. That means institutional clients can now create and destroy USDC without going through Circle’s standard pipeline.

What this means for investors For Solana, more USDC on the network means deeper liquidity pools, tighter spreads on decentralized exchanges, and more attractive conditions for both traders and protocol developers.

The BNY Mellon partnership adds another layer to consider. Institutional access to direct minting and burning means that large players can respond to market conditions faster than ever.

Tether’s USDT still dominates overall stablecoin market share, but USDC’s multi-chain expansion and emphasis on full reserve transparency have carved out a distinct institutional niche. The $73.6 billion in circulation represents significant ground gained.

The risk worth flagging: concentrated minting on any single chain creates dependency. If Solana experienced a significant outage or security event, having tens of billions of USDC sitting on the network would create redemption pressure that could test Circle’s operational capacity.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The Solana influencer has sent roughly $6.7M in tokens to more than 700 wallets onchain, even as he controls about 60% of the supply.

Crypto influencer Ansem has airdropped about $7 million worth of the $ANSEM memecoin to Solana users, and said he will keep distributing tokens as the price rises in a push to grow the holder base to 1 million wallets.

Ansem, who posts under the handle @blknoiz06 and counts close to 1 million followers on X, has sent roughly $6.7 million in $ANSEM to more than 700 wallets, onchain analytics firm Bubblemaps said in a post on X. One wallet received more than $1 million, six received more than $100,000 each, 40 received more than $10,000, 300 received more than $1,000, and 400 received more than $150, according to Bubblemaps. The token currently has about 25,000 holders, Ansem said, short of the 1 million he is targeting.

The campaign is a live test of one of crypto's most contested ideas: that a person's online reputation can be packaged into a tradable asset. $ANSEM has no product, revenue or roadmap, and its value rests almost entirely on the attention of the influencer whose name it carries. That makes the airdrop both a marketing engine and a concentration risk, because the same wallet funding the giveaways still holds the majority of the supply.

Fee Redistribution“Sent out another round of the airdrops, have airdropped about ~$7M so far, will do more as market cap goes higher," Ansem wrote on X. “Goal is to get $ANSEM to 1M holders, currently at ~25k holders.”

Ansem has framed the distributions as a way to return the creator fees he earns on the memecoin launchpad pumpfun to holders, rather than as a token sale. He did not deploy $ANSEM himself. A separate wallet created the token on pumpfun around June 17 and transferred the bulk of the supply to Ansem's address, onchain tracker Lookonchain said. That deployer spent about $6,300 to launch the token, bought 792.45 million $ANSEM, sent 650 million to Ansem and later sold the rest for about $11,800, netting roughly $5,500, according to Lookonchain.

Ansem now controls the largest single position. He holds about 604 million tokens, or roughly 60% of the supply, data from Bubblemaps how.

Token Touched a Nine-Figure Valuation$ANSEM, nicknamed "The Black Bull," was trading at about $0.10 with a circulating market cap near $43 million and a fully diluted valuation of about $105 million as of 5:30 p.m. ET on June 29, according to CoinGecko. The token rose about 22% over the prior 24 hours, compared with a 7% gain in Solana's SOL and a 1% rise in Bitcoin.

The token hit a record of about $0.12 earlier on June 29, CoinGecko data show, briefly pushing its fully diluted valuation above $120 million. Reported market caps for the token have varied widely depending on the source and whether the calculation uses circulating or total supply.

Reputation CoinsThe airdrop has reopened a debate over so-called key-opinion-leader, or KOL, coins, tokens tied to an individual's social following rather than a product.

“$ANSEM is a fascinating example of tokenized attention and reputation," DeFi researcher Ignas wrote on X. He argued that influencer coins are surprisingly less reviled than other ways creators monetize an audience, because buyers opt in. “You can opt out and simply not buy. If you bought and lost money, all you can blame is yourself," he wrote, adding that most such tokens will fail because they have "no revenue or business tied to them."

Ignas also flagged a tension in the airdrop model. The tokens being distributed, he noted, are "coming from someone else's degen pockets" — funded by new buyers rather than business cash flow — and warned that recasting a memecoin as a "revenue token" is "usually bad news" for the price.

Crypto analyst 0xNairolf called the token "a perfect reminder that one of the biggest unsolved markets in crypto is letting people speculate on other people," predicting that "whoever cracks that is the next pumpfun."

The episode lands as Solana's memecoin activity recovers. The Defiant has reported on a broader revival in low-cap Solana tokens, and influencer-driven coins have repeatedly drawn scrutiny, from Iggy Azalea's MOTHER to the contested NEIRO listings that Ansem himself helped move.

Polarizing FigureAnsem is a polarizing figure. In October 2024, onchain investigator ZachXBT publicly accused him of promoting a series of low-cap Solana memecoins in a way that resembled pump-and-dump dynamics, arguing his reach could leave followers holding losses. Ansem rejected the criticism, defending his early calls on tokens such as Dogwifhat. The accusations were not accompanied by formal findings and remain unproven.

Concentration is the more immediate concern. With roughly 60% of the supply in a single wallet, the holder doing the airdropping also has the ability to move the price sharply.

Ansem has said further airdrops will follow as the market cap climbs, tying continued distributions to the token's price.

Think of a mid-sized Japanese hotel company pivoting to become one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders. That’s Metaplanet in a nutshell.

Metaplanet (TSE: 3350) now counts approximately 212,571 domestic shareholders, a figure that works out to roughly 0.2% of Japan’s population. That shareholder base grew 66% in recent months.

From 10,000 to 212,000 shareholders in two years When Metaplanet launched its Bitcoin treasury strategy in April 2024, the company had around 10,000 shareholders. It blew past 64,000 on the way to today’s 212,571 figure. The company’s long-term target is exceeding one million shareholders.

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Metaplanet is essentially trying to redirect capital toward Bitcoin through the comfort of a traditional stock listing. Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, pioneered this model in the US.

The company now holds 40,177 BTC, making it Asia’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder and the third-largest among public companies globally, behind Strategy and Twenty One Capital. It purchased 5,075 BTC in Q1 2026 alone as part of its ongoing accumulation push.

Building the infrastructure for Bitcoin yield products In June 2026, the company acquired Siiibo Securities for approximately $13 million. The deal gives Metaplanet a Type I financial instruments business license, which is the regulatory key needed to sell Bitcoin-linked yield products directly to Japanese investors.

The company is also pursuing a $5.4 billion equity facility, denominated at roughly 770.9 billion yen. That capital is earmarked for buying more Bitcoin. Metaplanet’s stated ambition is to accumulate up to 210,000 BTC in total, which represents 1% of Bitcoin’s total 21 million supply cap.

What this means for investors The dilution risk is a key consideration. A $5.4 billion equity facility means Metaplanet will be issuing a lot of new shares. If Bitcoin’s price rises fast enough, the BTC-per-share metric improves. If Bitcoin stalls or drops, shareholders absorb dilution without the offsetting gain.

If Metaplanet successfully launches Bitcoin yield products for Japanese retail investors via the Siiibo Securities acquisition, it creates a revenue stream beyond simple price appreciation, potentially differentiating it from pure treasury plays.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

June 29 : Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure firm Ionic Digital filed on Monday to go public through a direct listing.

The company was formed in January 2024 to acquire the cryptocurrency mining assets of Celsius Mining, a subsidiary of Celsius, which received U.S. bankruptcy court approval for a restructuring in November 2023.

A direct listing allows a company to list its existing shares on an exchange without an underwritten offering. No new shares are created, and insiders can sell their holdings instantly.

Ionic's registered stockholders plan to sell up to 10.8 million shares of common stock in the listing.

As part of Celsius' reorganization, Ionic issued about 37 million Class A shares to Celsius creditors, turning them into shareholders in the new company.

New Jersey-based Celsius filed for Chapter 11 protection in July 2022, one month after freezing customer accounts to prevent withdrawals. It is one of several crypto lenders to go bankrupt following the rapid growth of the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Ionic raised $400 million at a pre-money valuation of $2 billion in a funding round led by new investors Attestor, Oaktree Capital Management and Sachem Head Capital Management.

Ionic plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol "IOND". J.P.Morgan, Jefferies and BTIG are the financial advisors for the listing.

Cardano’s network has continued to see notably low transaction fees in recent months, alongside progress in decentralization metrics and declining user costs. Data from the platform highlights that despite ADA’s weak price action, Cardano is maintaining technical resilience on the blockchain side.

Transaction fees remain lowAccording to Chainspect data shared by analyst MB, Cardano’s transaction fees have largely fluctuated within a narrow range of $0.07 to $0.09 over the past three months. While transaction costs have surged rapidly during busy periods on many blockchains, Cardano has managed to keep operating costs low despite ongoing transfers and staking activity.

During periods of increased network use, fees briefly approached $0.09, a spike attributed primarily to DeFi and NFT transactions. However, this rise proved temporary; by June 20, transaction costs had slumped to $0.05143. This marks a roughly 35% drop from the previous average of $0.08.

Despite higher on-chain activity, Cardano managed to keep transaction costs low, with fees falling to $0.05143 on June 20.

ADA price outlook remains cautiousAlthough the network’s technical performance appears stable, ADA’s market structure remains fragile. Analyst Ali Charts noted that following a recent attack on Cardano wallets—resulting in the theft of 129 million ADA, worth around $20 million—the daily chart has shown a TD Sequential buy signal.

However, doubts persist about the sustainability of any price rebounds. Analysts highlight a key resistance zone between $0.160 and $0.176. The formation of lower highs and lower lows in ADA’s price structure continues to weigh on sentiment. At the time of reporting, ADA is trading above $0.144, currently near $0.1503.

Mini glossary: TD Sequential is a technical analysis indicator that helps identify possible turning points in price action, while resistance refers to a price region where selling pressure may stall a rally.

Decentralization and institutional interest in focusCardano is showing signs of not only stable fees but also a strengthening network structure. Chainspect data reveals the network’s Nakamoto coefficient has climbed to 28—a figure measuring the minimum number of independent entities required to compromise a blockchain’s control. With this metric, Cardano has surpassed Avalanche to claim third place for decentralization.

In practical terms, this means 28 independent actors would need to act in concert to undermine Cardano’s network. Developed in 2017 under the leadership of Charles Hoskinson, Cardano is known for its research-driven approach to blockchain innovation.

Institutional activity around Cardano is picking up as well. Market analyst Cheeky Crypto reported that asset manager Bitwise is planning to launch an ETF comprising 10 cryptocurrencies, including ADA. Bitwise is a leading developer of crypto-focused investment products, and such a launch could boost institutional interest in Cardano.

Cheeky Crypto stated that Bitwise’s plan for an ETF including ADA could be a catalyst for increased institutional engagement with Cardano.

In the coming period, traders will be watching to see if ADA can establish a foothold above the $0.160–$0.176 resistance range. Network activity, deepening decentralization, and Bitwise’s ETF initiative are expected to be key factors shaping price trends moving forward.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Stellar trades near $0.18, but a May 2026 plan for the DTCC to connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with XLM named as the settlement token, could route trillions in traditional securities onto the network. What would that actually mean for the price? Here is the realistic read, separating the landmark from the hype.

Summary

Stellar trades near $0.18 as of late June 2026, down from a July 2025 high near $0.52, with the Fear and Greed reading in extreme fear despite strong network fundamentals. In May 2026, the DTCC, the backbone of United States securities settlement, announced it would connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with XLM designated as the settlement token and live assets targeted for the first half of 2027. The deal is a genuine long-term, high-conviction catalyst because it links potential institutional securities volume directly to the network, but the 2027 timeline means price until then is driven by speculation and sentiment. The central question for the price is value accrual: whether routing securities settlement through Stellar translates into sustained demand for the XLM token, a question complicated by XLM’s fixed supply with no burn mechanism. Year-end 2026 forecasts span roughly $0.18 at the bearish end to $1.20 to $2.50 in bullish models, a gap that turns on whether the DTCC and other catalysts begin converting fundamentals into token demand. Stellar (XLM) is trading near $0.18 as of late June 2026, and it presents one of the sharpest disconnects in crypto: a network with strong and growing fundamentals attached to a token sitting near multi-year lows.

XLM is down from a July 2025 high near $0.52, the Fear and Greed reading is mired in extreme fear, and yet the underlying network is arguably healthier than ever, with tokenized real-world assets on Stellar having climbed past $2.83 billion, stablecoin payment volume around $5.5 billion, developer engagement at record highs, and consensus achieved in under six seconds through its Federated Byzantine Agreement design.

Stellar price chart | Source: crypto.news Into that gap between fundamentals and price landed the most consequential development in Stellar’s recent history: in May 2026, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, the institution that sits at the center of United States securities settlement, announced it would connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with XLM named as the settlement token and live assets targeted for the first half of 2027.

The announcement raised an obvious and high-stakes question for anyone watching XLM: if the backbone of traditional securities settlement is routing tokenized assets through Stellar, what does that mean for the price of the token?

This article answers that question as realistically as possible, separating the genuine significance of the deal from the hype that inevitably surrounds it. It works through where Stellar stands now and why the fundamentals-price gap exists, what the DTCC deal actually is, why it could be a landmark, the all-important value-accrual question of whether network volume translates into token demand, the problem of the 2027 timeline, the other catalysts stacking up around XLM, the supply dynamics that complicate the bull case, what the analysts forecast, and three scenarios for the price.

The aim is to give XLM holders and observers a clear-eyed read rather than either dismissive skepticism or breathless promotion, because the DTCC deal is simultaneously a real, high-conviction catalyst and a development whose price impact is years away and structurally uncertain. The forecasts here are information, not advice. And the thread running through the whole analysis is the same question that haunts every payments-token valuation: does the network’s success actually accrue to the token, or can the volume flow through while the token is bypassed? For Stellar, the DTCC deal makes that question concrete and urgent.

Where Stellar stands and the fundamentals gap Begin with the disconnect that defines XLM right now, because it is the context for everything the DTCC deal might change. Stellar near $0.18 is down significantly from its July 2025 high near $0.52, and the Fear and Greed reading sits in extreme fear, the same deeply pessimistic sentiment weighing on the broader crypto market.

On the charts, XLM has spent 2026 oscillating, with periods of consolidation around the high teens to low twenties in cents and sharp volatility, including swings of substantial magnitude within single months, but the broad trend has left the token near the lower end of its range and below where it traded a year ago. By the standard technical and sentiment measures, XLM looks like what it is: a beaten-down mid-cap altcoin in a fearful market.

What makes Stellar unusual is that its fundamentals tell a very different story from its price. The value of tokenized real-world assets issued on Stellar has surged past $2.83 billion, growing at a rapid clip, and stablecoin payment volume on the network has reached roughly $5.5 billion, both signs of genuine, growing utility rather than mere speculation. The network supports a large base of accounts and a wide array of fiat and crypto on-ramps, achieves fast and cheap settlement through its consensus design, and has added the Soroban smart-contract platform to enable tokenization and decentralized finance.

Developer engagement is at record levels. This is the crux of the Stellar investment debate: a network whose real-world usage and institutional positioning are strengthening, attached to a token whose price has fallen to multi-year lows. Bulls read the gap as a buying opportunity and evidence of accumulation, on the logic that price will eventually catch up to fundamentals. Skeptics read it as evidence that network usage does not reliably accrue value to the XLM token, which is precisely the question the DTCC deal forces to the center. The fundamentals-price gap is the setup; the DTCC deal is the potential catalyst that either closes it or exposes it as permanent.

What the DTCC deal actually is To assess its impact, you have to understand precisely what was announced, because the details determine the significance. In May 2026, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation revealed plans to connect its tokenization service to the Stellar network. The DTCC is not a peripheral player; it is the central infrastructure of United States securities settlement, the institution through which an enormous share of the country’s stock and bond transactions are cleared and settled, handling quadrillions of dollars in securities annually across the traditional financial system. Its decision to build tokenization capability on a public blockchain at all is significant, and its selection of Stellar specifically, with XLM named as the settlement token for the infrastructure, is what makes the announcement material for the token. The plan targets live assets in the first half of 2027, meaning the connection is a forward-looking build rather than something already moving volume today.

The stated logic is that tokenization, representing traditional securities as digital tokens on a blockchain, can make settlement faster, cheaper, and programmable, and that Stellar’s compliance-focused, settlement-oriented architecture is suited to regulated finance. The phrase that captured attention is that the arrangement brings the potential for trillions in traditional securities onto the network over time, with XLM as the settlement token directly linking that future institutional volume to token demand. That is the bullish framing, and it is grounded in real fact: the DTCC genuinely chose Stellar, XLM is genuinely named as the settlement token, and the addressable volume is truly enormous. But three qualifications matter from the outset and shape the rest of this analysis.

First, the assets go live in 2027, not now. Second, the scale of what actually migrates onto Stellar, as opposed to the theoretical addressable market, is unknown. And third, and most important for the price, the mechanism by which settlement volume translates into sustained XLM demand is the contested value-accrual question instead of an automatic pass-through. The deal is real and large in potential; what it means for the token depends on details that are not yet settled.

Why it could be a landmark Taken at its strongest, the DTCC deal is a genuine landmark, and the bull case for its significance deserves a full and fair statement. The first reason is validation. When the institution at the heart of United States securities settlement chooses to build tokenization infrastructure on Stellar, it is an endorsement of Stellar’s architecture for regulated, institutional finance that no marketing campaign could buy. It signals that Stellar’s long-standing bet on compliance and settlement, often overlooked during the speculative manias that drove other chains, is being recognized by exactly the kind of counterparty it was designed to serve. For a network whose pitch has always been institutional and payments-focused instead of retail-speculative, having the DTCC select it is the strongest possible third-party confirmation of the thesis.

The second reason is the direct linkage to token demand, at least in principle. Because XLM is named as the settlement token for the DTCC tokenization infrastructure, future institutional volume flowing through that infrastructure has a potential channel to XLM demand, unlike vaguer partnership announcements that leave the token’s role ambiguous. The third reason is scale and trajectory. The addressable market for tokenized securities is measured in the trillions, and even capturing a modest fraction would represent settlement volume far beyond anything Stellar handles today, which is why the deal is framed as a long-term, high-conviction bullish driver instead of a short-term price catalyst. It fits a broader pattern in which Stellar has positioned itself as compliance-ready infrastructure for tokenization, evidenced by its alignment with regulatory frameworks and its role hosting regulated stablecoins.

NEW: MoneyGram introduces MGUSD native USD stablecoin on Stellar. Built with Stablecoin, M0 and Fireblocks. Now live in the U.S pic.twitter.com/N4CeRg5sHz

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) June 3, 2026 The strongest version of the bull case, then, is that the DTCC deal is the moment Stellar’s institutional thesis begins to be validated by the most credible possible counterparty, with a direct potential link to token demand and an addressable market large enough to transform the network’s economics. Whether that potential converts into token price is the next, harder question.

The value-accrual question Here is where realism has to enter, because the gap between a network landmark and a token price runs straight through the value-accrual question, and Stellar’s situation has a cautionary parallel close at hand. The question is whether routing securities settlement through Stellar actually creates sustained demand for the XLM token, or whether the volume can flow through the network while the token captures little of the value. This is not a hypothetical concern invented for skepticism; it is the same question that has dogged XRP, where Ripple’s commercial success in cross-border payments has not reliably translated into XRP token appreciation, because much settlement activity can occur without participants holding the token for any meaningful duration. Stellar faces a structurally similar issue: a settlement token may be used transiently to bridge value during a transaction without anyone needing to hold XLM as a durable asset, in which case enormous settlement volume could produce only modest, fleeting token demand.

The specifics of how XLM is used in the DTCC infrastructure will determine which way this resolves, and those specifics are not yet fully clear. If XLM is required as a persistent bridge or reserve asset that institutions must hold to access the settlement rails, and if the volume is large, the demand could be substantial and sustained. If, instead, XLM functions as a momentary settlement medium that is acquired and released within transactions, or if stablecoins denominated in dollars do most of the actual value transfer while XLM plays a minimal technical role, then the token demand could be far smaller than the headline volume suggests.

The honest assessment is that the DTCC deal creates a potential channel for value to accrue to XLM, but it does not guarantee that it will, and the magnitude depends on technical and economic details that remain to be seen. This is the single most important caveat for anyone pricing XLM off the DTCC news. The deal could be a genuine landmark for the network and still deliver a muted token-price impact if the value-accrual mechanism is weak, exactly as has happened with XRP. The network’s success and the token’s success are related but not identical, and conflating them is the most common error in valuing payments tokens.

The 2027 timeline problem Even setting aside the value-accrual question, the DTCC deal carries a timing problem that directly affects how it should be priced today. The plan targets live assets in the first half of 2027, which means that for the entire rest of 2026 and into early 2027, there is no actual DTCC settlement volume flowing through Stellar, only the anticipation of it. This matters because, until the infrastructure goes live and shows real volume, XLM’s price will be driven by speculation and sentiment about the future instead of by current flows, which makes it vulnerable to the same volatility that afflicts any narrative-driven asset. The market has already shown this dynamic, with XLM experiencing sharp moves and pullbacks, including a notable drop after a rally, as enthusiasm about the deal collided with the reality that nothing changes operationally for many months.

The timing problem cuts in two directions, and a fair analysis acknowledges both. On one hand, it tempers the near-term bull case: those expecting the DTCC deal to lift XLM’s price in 2026 are betting on sentiment and positioning instead of on actual usage, and sentiment can fade, reverse, or be overwhelmed by broader market conditions long before 2027 arrives. A deal that goes live in 18  months provides little support for a token if the broad crypto market stays fearful in the meantime.

On the other hand, the long runway means the catalyst is not yet spent: if and when the infrastructure goes live in 2027 and begins showing real volume, that could be a fresh, concrete catalyst at a point when much of the speculative anticipation may have faded, potentially providing an upside surprise to a token that the market had given up on.

For pricing XLM through the rest of 2026 specifically, the timeline problem means the DTCC deal is best understood as a long-term thesis underpinning the token instead of a near-term price driver, and that anyone buying XLM on the DTCC news in 2026 is making a multi-year bet whose payoff, if it comes, is concentrated in 2027 and beyond, contingent on the value-accrual question resolving favorably.

The other catalysts stacking up The DTCC deal does not stand alone; it sits atop a cluster of other developments that collectively strengthen Stellar’s institutional thesis, and a complete picture has to account for them. The most important is the regulatory designation.

On March 17, 2026, United States regulators designated Stellar as a digital commodity, the same classification extended to a short list of major tokens, which removed a significant barrier by clarifying XLM’s legal status and making it eligible for custodial services from institutions that safeguard assets. That designation is foundational because it is what allows firms to build regulated products on Stellar and to hold XLM with legal confidence, and it underpins the DTCC deal and the others.

Building on it, CME Group XLM futures are expected during 2026, which would provide regulated derivatives infrastructure and a potential structural source of institutional demand and price discovery, and an Amundi fund and other institutional vehicles point to growing traditional-finance engagement with the token.

Several more developments round out the picture. Stellar is widely seen as a beneficiary of the CLARITY Act, the legislation that aims to codify digital-asset rules and that could advance in 2026, in the same way XRP is, since both are payment-focused tokens whose institutional adoption hinges on regulatory certainty. Stellar’s design aligns with European regulatory frameworks, evidenced by regulated stablecoins launching on the network, giving it a compliance posture suited to multiple jurisdictions. And the Soroban smart-contract platform expands what the network can host, broadening its addressable market into tokenization and decentralized finance.

The significance of this cluster is that the DTCC deal is not an isolated bet but part of a coherent institutional thesis: regulatory clarity through the digital-commodity designation and potential CLARITY Act passage, derivatives infrastructure through CME futures, traditional-finance vehicles through funds like Amundi’s, and the flagship tokenization linkage through the DTCC.

If the thesis works, these catalysts reinforce one another, with regulatory clarity enabling the institutional products that enable the volume that could drive token demand. The caveat from the value-accrual discussion still applies to all of them, but the breadth of the catalyst stack is itself a meaningful part of the bull case for XLM.

The supply picture that complicates the bull case A factor specific to XLM that any honest price analysis must weigh is its supply structure, which cuts against the simplest bullish narratives in an important way.

Following a 2019 community vote, Stellar ended its annual token issuance, fixing the total supply near 50 billion XLM and removing the inflationary dilution that suppresses price appreciation on many rival networks. That fixed supply is truly favorable: it means new issuance does not constantly dilute holders, and if demand rises against a fixed supply, the price pressure is upward. To that extent, the supply structure supports the bull case, and it is a point bulls rightly emphasize.

But there is a crucial qualification that complicates the value-accrual story. Stellar has no token-burn mechanism that meaningfully reduces circulating supply as the network is used. On some networks, transaction activity burns tokens, so that rising usage automatically tightens supply and creates upward price pressure independent of speculative demand, a direct link between network use and token scarcity. Stellar lacks this channel at scale, which means that fee-driven demand from network activity does not automatically remove XLM from circulation.

The implication for the DTCC deal is significant: even if substantial securities settlement volume flows through Stellar, that activity will not, by itself, shrink the XLM supply the way a burn mechanism would, so 1 of the clearest channels through which network usage could force token-price appreciation is absent.

The price would have to rise through genuine, sustained holding demand for XLM as an asset, not merely through transactional throughput, which loops back to the value-accrual question. The fixed supply is a modest positive; the absence of a burn mechanism is a real limitation on how mechanically network success can translate into token-price gains. Together they mean XLM’s bull case depends more heavily on durable demand for the token itself than on raw volume, which raises the bar for the DTCC deal to move the price.

What the analysts forecast The analyst forecasts for XLM in 2026 span an extraordinarily wide range, even by the standards of the other majors, and the spread maps directly onto the questions this article has raised. At the bearish end, the algorithmic forecaster CoinCodex reads Stellar as bearish on technical indicators and, strikingly, its model does not project XLM reaching $1 until 2047, treating the token as a slow-compounding asset that the current setup does not favor.

Other cautious forecasters cluster low: Traders Union’s model points to roughly $0.40 to $0.48 for year-end, and DigitalCoinPrice sees around $0.32, both well above current levels but far below the bullish targets and treating Stellar as an infrastructure asset that appreciates slowly instead of a narrative rocket. Base-case forecasts that assume regulatory clarity holds and tokenization grows at a moderate pace tend to land in a $0.25 to $0.50 band, a meaningful recovery from current levels without a breakout.

At the bullish end sit forecasters who weigh the institutional catalysts heavily. Coinpedia’s hybrid model is the most bullish of the major platforms for 2026, placing XLM in a moderate range of $1.20 to $1.80 and a stronger scenario toward $2.50 if it reclaims key resistance, explicitly anchoring the thesis in institutional adoption velocity, rising stablecoin and tokenized-asset volume, and the catalysts described above, with a longer-term 2030 target as high as $6.19 under favorable conditions.

CoinLore and others produce aggressive cycle targets in the range of roughly $0.50 to $1.69 for the year. The gap, from a model that does not see $1 until 2047 to 1 targeting $2.50 this year, is enormous, and it reflects exactly the unresolved questions: whether the DTCC deal and the other catalysts convert into token demand, whether the value-accrual mechanism is strong or weak, and whether the 2027 timeline leaves 2026 to sentiment.

The bullish forecasts assume the institutional thesis begins paying off in token demand; the bearish ones assume the fundamentals-price gap persists because usage does not accrue to the token. The forecasts cannot settle which is right; they can only show how much rides on the DTCC deal and its peers actually closing that gap.

Three scenarios for Stellar around the DTCC catalyst Pulling the analysis into scenarios clarifies the range without pretending to certainty. In the bull scenario, the market begins to price the institutional thesis ahead of the 2027 go-live. Confidence grows that the DTCC deal, the digital-commodity designation, CME futures, and the broader catalyst stack will convert into real XLM demand, an altcoin-favorable phase arrives, and XLM recovers toward the $1.20 to $2.50 range that the most bullish credible models describe, with the fundamentals-price gap finally closing as anticipation of trillions in tokenized volume lifts the token. This path requires the market to look through the 2027 timeline and to bet that the value-accrual question resolves in XLM’s favor, and it leans on the breadth of the catalyst stack as the engine. It is achievable but conditional on a favorable read of exactly the questions that remain open.

In the base scenario, the most defensible central case, XLM recovers modestly to a $0.25 to $0.50 band. Regulatory clarity holds, the catalysts develop roughly on schedule, and the token grinds back up from its lows as the institutional thesis slowly gains credibility, but without a breakout, because the DTCC volume is not live until 2027 and the value-accrual mechanism remains unproven through 2026.

This recovery-without-breakout outcome fits the weight of base-case forecasting and reflects the reality that the biggest catalyst is years from delivering actual volume. In the bear scenario, the fundamentals-price gap persists or widens. The broad market stays fearful, the DTCC anticipation fades as 2027 stays distant, doubts deepen about whether settlement volume will ever accrue to the token given the no-burn supply structure, and XLM stalls in the $0.10 to $0.20 range or drifts lower, validating the bearish models that treat it as a slow-compounding asset. Which scenario unfolds depends on the broad market, the pace of the catalysts, and above all whether the market comes to believe that routing securities through Stellar will create durable demand for XLM. All 3 are live, and the DTCC deal is the pivot around which they turn, a genuine landmark for the network whose translation into token price remains the open question.

Frequently Asked Questions What is the DTCC tokenization deal with Stellar? In May 2026, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, the central infrastructure of United States securities settlement, announced it would connect its tokenization service to the Stellar network, with XLM named as the settlement token and live assets targeted for the first half of 2027. The DTCC clears and settles an enormous share of United States securities transactions, so its decision to build tokenization capability on Stellar is a major institutional endorsement. The arrangement carries the potential to bring tokenized traditional securities onto the network over time, with XLM as the settlement token linking that future volume to potential token demand. It is a forward-looking build, not something moving volume today.

Will the DTCC deal make XLM’s price go up? It could, but it is not automatic, and the timing and mechanism matter. The deal is a genuine long-term, high-conviction catalyst because it links potential institutional securities volume to the network with XLM named as the settlement token. But assets do not go live until the first half of 2027, so through 2026 the price is driven by speculation instead of actual flows. More fundamentally, whether settlement volume translates into sustained XLM demand is the contested value-accrual question: a settlement token can be used transiently without anyone holding it durably, and Stellar lacks a burn mechanism that would tighten supply as usage grows. The deal could be a landmark for the network and still deliver a muted token-price impact if value accrual is weak.

Why is Stellar’s price so low if its fundamentals are strong? This is the central Stellar paradox. The network’s fundamentals are strong and growing, with tokenized real-world assets past $2.83 billion, stablecoin payment volume around $5.5 billion, record developer engagement, and fast, cheap settlement, yet XLM trades near $0.18, down from a 2025 high near $0.52, with sentiment in extreme fear. Bulls read the gap as a buying opportunity on the logic that price will catch up to fundamentals. Skeptics read it as evidence that network usage does not reliably accrue value to the XLM token, the same issue that has dogged XRP. The gap exists because network success and token-price appreciation are related but not identical, and the mechanism linking them for XLM is contested.

What is the value-accrual question for XLM? It is whether routing activity like securities settlement through Stellar actually creates sustained demand for the XLM token, or whether volume can flow through the network while the token captures little value. A settlement token may be used transiently to bridge value within a transaction without anyone needing to hold XLM as a durable asset, in which case large settlement volume could produce only modest, fleeting token demand. This is the same question that has limited XRP’s price despite Ripple’s commercial success. For the DTCC deal, the magnitude of token-price impact depends on whether XLM is required as a persistent bridge or reserve asset or functions only as a momentary settlement medium, details that are not yet fully clear.

Does Stellar’s fixed supply help the price? Partly, but with an important limitation. Following a 2019 community vote, Stellar ended annual issuance and fixed total supply near 50 billion XLM, removing the inflationary dilution that suppresses many rival tokens, which is favorable because rising demand against fixed supply creates upward price pressure. However, Stellar has no token-burn mechanism that meaningfully reduces circulating supply as the network is used. On some networks, transaction activity burns tokens so that rising usage automatically tightens supply; Stellar lacks this at scale, so fee-driven demand does not automatically remove XLM from circulation. The implication is that even large settlement volume will not shrink supply by itself, so the price must rise through durable holding demand instead of throughput, which raises the bar for catalysts like the DTCC deal

What are analysts forecasting for Stellar in 2026? The range is extraordinarily wide. At the bearish end, CoinCodex’s model is bearish and does not project XLM reaching $1 until 2047, while Traders Union sees roughly $0.40 to $0.48 and DigitalCoinPrice around $0.32 for year-end, treating XLM as a slow-compounding infrastructure asset. Base-case forecasts that assume moderate growth cluster in a $0.25 to $0.50 band. At the bullish end, Coinpedia models $1.20 to $1.80 and up to $2.50 if resistance is reclaimed, anchored in institutional adoption, with a 2030 target as high as $6.19. The gap, from no $1 until 2047 to $2.50 this year, reflects the unresolved questions of whether the DTCC deal and other catalysts convert into token demand and whether the fundamentals-price gap finally closes.

This article is information, not financial or investment advice. Stellar price levels, network metrics, the DTCC announcement details, and analyst forecasts reflect data available as of June 28, 2026, are point-in-time, and can change. Cryptocurrency is highly volatile, and you can lose money. Price predictions are inherently uncertain, and the scenarios described are not guarantees. Do your own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.