Circle, the issuer of USDC, has obtained approval to operate as a US federally regulated trust bank, according to Watcher Guru. The approval comes amid ongoing efforts to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers, enabling Circle to expand its institutional financial infrastructure and custody services.
Regulatory and Market Developments
CFTC Chairman has emphasized the need to pass the CLARITY Act, while the number of crypto ETF filings and listings has exceeded 500, Bloomberg ETF analyst reported. Robinhood Chain's DEX surpassed $1 billion in trading volume in its first week, outpacing Hyperliquid in 24-hour DEX volume rankings. 1Confirmation's founder predicted that the next wave of crypto user growth will come from real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
Corporate and Institutional Moves
Standard Chartered maintained its $100,000 Bitcoin price target, stating that Strategy's Bitcoin sales do not necessarily indicate worsening risk. CleanSpark purchased an additional 454 Bitcoin, raising its holdings to 13,924 BTC worth about $880 million. The US government transferred 4,036 Ethereum from seized wallets, valued at approximately $7.22 million. ZachXBT reported that an early Solana whale wallet was likely compromised, with about 180,900 SOL moved.
Stablecoin and Payment Integration
Meta is considering integrating stablecoins for payment settlement in agent-based commerce, which its chief data officer Alex Schultz called the company's 'next-generation business.' Hyundai Motor completed a test on Avalanche transferring $20,000 USDT from its US entity to its Mexico entity, reducing settlement time from hours to about 7 minutes. Hyundai plans to expand the method to more countries and conduct a second test with Circle and Visa later this month.
Legal and Regulatory Challenges
Custodia Bank has petitioned the US Supreme Court to review the Federal Reserve's denial of its master account application. The bank argues that the denial undermines state-chartered bank authority. Coinbase's vice president stated that the CLARITY Act has bipartisan support in the Senate. Meanwhile, Boya Interactive, a Hong Kong-listed firm, purchased an additional 108 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 4,201 BTC.
Market Activity and Tokenization
Backpack launched 24-hour trading of tokenized US stocks for international investors, initially supporting SpaceX, Micron, and SanDisk. The tokens are issued on Solana and are redeemable 1:1 for the underlying shares. Whale Alert reported a transfer of 190.8 million USDC from Aave to an anonymous whale wallet on Ethereum. In the past 24 hours, the crypto futures market saw $235 million in liquidations, with shorts accounting for 70% of the total.