Home Blog Page 589

Crypto like COIN, HOOD have bottomed heading into earnings and trades at a ‘big’ discount, Bernstein says

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Crypto like COIN, HOOD have bottomed heading into earnings and trades at a ‘big’ discount, Bernstein says

Crypto-linked equities are nearing a bottom heading into first-quarter earnings, according to Wall Street broker Bernstein, which said the sector’s roughly 60% drawdown from 2025 highs has created “big businesses at big discounts.”

“The combination of geopolitics and temporary crypto weak sentiment is offering big discounts on crypto stocks,” analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said in the Monday report.

The broker expects near-term weakness to persist through Q1 results but views current levels as an entry point into companies with exposure to large and growing markets, including stablecoins, tokenization, prediction markets and derivatives.

Since peaking in October 2025, crypto markets have undergone a sharp and sustained correction, with bitcoin falling roughly 40%–50% from record highs near $126,000 and the broader digital asset market value declining by about $2 trillion.

The selloff, driven by a mix of macro pressures, regulatory uncertainty and unwinding leverage, has erased much of the prior bull run’s gains and weighed heavily on crypto-linked equities, pushing sentiment into a more cautious phase heading into 2026.

Against that backdrop, the analysts revised their price targets while maintaining an upbeat longer-term outlook. The broker maintained outperform ratings on Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD) and Figure (FIGR).

It lowered its Coinbase price target to $330 from $440, Robinhood’s target to $130 from $160, and Figure’s target to $67 from $72. Coinbase was trading around $165.50 at publication time, Robinhood at $67.10, and Figure at $31.14.

The analysts said a combination of macro uncertainty and weak crypto sentiment has weighed on valuations, but expects a turn as earnings clarify fundamentals and sentiment stabilizes into the rest of the year.

The call comes as the broker said last week that bitcoin has likely found its bottom and is primed for further gains, and reiterated its $150,000 year-end price target.

Read more: Wall Street broker Bernstein calls bitcoin bottom, keeps $150,000 year-end target

BTC gives up gains as WTI crude oil surges over $100 per barrel

info@uweb3.io
-
0
BTC gives up gains as WTI crude oil surges over $100 per barrel

The teetering bond market received some good news on Monday, but it wasn’t enough to offset a continued surge in oil prices, which sent U.S. stocks lower and crypto giving up most of its gains.

Speaking at Harvard University, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank — for the moment — is looking past short-term oil price shocks and focusing on inflation expectations that remain “well anchored.”

His comments helped soothe a bond market that had begun to seriously price in the chance of an imminent Fed rate hike. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell nine basis points Monday to 4.35%, and the 2-year yield slid eight basis points to 3.83%.

The odds of one or more Fed rate hikes in 2026 tumbled to 5% from 25% on Friday, according to CME FedWatch.

Sizably higher early on Monday, U.S. stocks nevertheless gave up those gains, the Nasdaq closing lower by 0.75% and the S&P 500 by 0.4%. Bitcoin BTC$66,611.53 also gave up early gains, retreating back to $66,500, roughly unchanged over the past 24 hours.

Hurting sentiment in risk assets was a continued rise in the price of oil. WTI crude rose 5.3% on Monday to just shy of $105 per barrel. While WTI has traded above $100 since the Iran war broke out, it hadn’t closed above that level since 2022.

“We will eventually maybe face the question of what to do here,” said Powell. “We’re not really facing it yet because we don’t know what the economic effects will be.”

JPMorgan expands digital assets push with Mitsubishi deal as it targets $10bn in daily transactions

info@uweb3.io
-
0
JPMorgan expands digital assets push with Mitsubishi deal as it targets $10bn in daily transactions

JPMorgan plans to double daily transaction values on its blockchain to $10 billion — and hopes a new deal with Mitsubishi will help it achieve its goal.

Since its 2020 launch, Kinexys, JPMorgan’s digital asset service, has processed over $3 trillion worth of transactions. But Zack Chestnut tells DL News that this number is only set to grow.

“Our goal is to meaningfully grow these figures as quickly as we can,” the global head of business development for Kinexys said. “We would be pleased but not satisfied to see daily transaction value get above $10 billion per day in the foreseeable future.”

Mitsubishi is only the latest firm to sign up to JPMorgan’s blockchain network. Kinexys serves “hundreds” of clients across five continents, including central and commercial banks to the tune of $5 billion in transactions per day, Chestnut said.

The expansion of Kinexys also highlights Wall Street’s growing adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

Traditional financial services are launching crypto-trading services, signing partnerships with industry-native firms, tokenising assets, acquiring crypto startups, and increasingly using digital ledger technology to boost efficiencies.

And JPMorgan, led by CEO and ardent crypto-sceptic Jamie Dimon, has found itself at the centre of this wave.

What is Kinexys?

Originally known as Onyx, JPMorgan’s bespoke blockchain first saw the light in 2020. The JPMD deposit token is at the centre of the firm’s payments strategy.

Like a stablecoin, these deposit tokens enable near-instantaneous payments and settlements at a fraction of the price. But instead of being backed by assets like US treasuries, deposit tokens represent funds held in a bank account.

And unlike stablecoins, they can be moved between bank accounts, on- and offchain, without needing to use intermediaries.

“In our experience, many of the efficiencies on offer from using blockchain rails are most valuable in complex, cross-border money movement flows for sophisticated global institutions,” Chestnut said. “As such, the appeal of Kinexys is global”

Mitsubishi is the first Japanese corporation to adopt Kinexys.

“As we are developing and operating businesses globally across a wide array of industries, it is essential that funds raised in the market and cash generated across our operations can be allocated efficiently throughout our consolidated group,” Kazuyoshi Kawakami, Mitsubishi’s treasurer, said in a statement.

Wall Street’s crypto push

JPMorgan is not the only traditional financial behemoth to tap into blockchain technology.

Many such projects have been in the works for years. For instance, payments giant PayPal launched a stablecoin in 2023, and companies like Mastercard have been developing solutions for the better part of the last decade.

Yet Donald Trump’s second term as president has turbo-charged those ambitions. His election win in 2024 and his pro-crypto policies have emboldened old-school banks and payments firms to turbo-charge their digital asset ambitions.

Stripe, the $159 billion payments giant, has launched its own blockchain, Mastercard has created a crypto partnership programme with over 100 companies across fintech and crypto, and crypto-native firms are being acquired like never before.

JPMorgan declined to directly comment on specific governments or other companies’ strategies.

Even so, Chestnut seemed confident that JPMorgan will be able to add new clients to its blockchain-based payments network.

“The pipeline is very robust, and we expect the market will continue to hear more about our continued client growth throughout the next 12 months,” Chestnut said.

Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.

Valinor Raises $25M Seed Round to Bring Private Credit Onchain

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Valinor Raises $25M Seed Round to Bring Private Credit Onchain

The ex-Blackstone team wants to move beyond crypto-collateralized loans and into ‘real economy credit’ as the tokenized RWA sector continues to grow.

Valinor, a New York-based startup building what it calls “Open Credit” infrastructure at the intersection of institutional capital and decentralized finance (DeFi), has raised $25 million in a seed round to bring private credit onto the blockchain.

Castle Island Ventures led the round. Other investors include Susquehanna’s crypto arm, Maven11, Apollo, Neoclassic Capital, The Venture Dept, 57Blocks, The Fintech Fund, and the founders of Bitcoin miner-turned-AI company TeraWulf, according to the company’s website. The round’s valuation was not disclosed.

Co-founders Connor Dougherty and Lily Yarborough both worked in Blackstone’s GSO Special Situations credit division before launching Valinor in late 2023.

Valinor is targeting the operational overhead embedded in private credit. The firm argues that rules-based lending operations — such as revolving credit facilities where borrowers draw and repay millions weekly — can be automated through smart contracts rather than managed through chains of human verification and manual wire approvals.

The company has already deployed blockchain-based loans to a handful of fintech and crypto companies, Fortune reported.

Private Credit Dominates RWA Market

The deal comes as private credit has become the largest category in tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The total distributed value of on-chain RWAs has reached approximately $26.7 billion, according to RWAxyz, up from roughly $5.5 billion at the start of 2025. Private credit accounts for the bulk of that total, with Figure alone holding roughly 75% of the category’s active loans through its Provenance blockchain.

RedStone projected that the total tokenized RWA market could reach $50–60 billion by the end of 2026, with private credit expected to maintain roughly 45–50% market share.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

FCA Consolidates Priorities to Modernise UK Payments Sector

info@uweb3.io
-
0
FCA Consolidates Priorities to Modernise UK Payments Sector

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has overhauled its supervisory approach for the payments industry, replacing more than 40 individual portfolio letters with a single annual Regulatory Priorities report. The move signals a shift toward a more “smarter” and “proportionate” regulatory model designed to support the UK’s National Payments Vision while tightening the net on firms failing to protect customer funds.

By streamlining its communications, the regulator aims to provide a “one-stop shop” for boards and executives to understand exactly where to focus their compliance efforts. This new framework is underpinned by a risk-based approach, where firms doing the right thing face less intensive supervision, while those posing the greatest harm meet stronger, faster enforcement action.

Matthew Long, Director of Payments and Digital Assets at the FCA, explained that the sector is evolving at pace, driven by open banking and new digital payment methods. “By setting out our priorities clearly, we want firms to understand where to focus their efforts — helping to deepen trust, rebalance risk and support sustainable growth,” Long said.

Future Infrastructure and Open Banking

A primary focus for the year ahead is the expansion of open banking and the transition toward a “Future Entity” to lead the ecosystem. With over 16 million people and businesses in the UK using open banking in 2025, the FCA is now working with the Treasury to introduce legislation that would grant the regulator permanent powers to set rules for a long-term framework.

This includes the development of commercial models for variable recurring payments (VRPs) and laying the groundwork for e-commerce use cases. However, the report raises questions about how quickly the industry can move toward “agentic AI payments,” an area the FCA is currently reviewing to determine if existing regulations are fit for purpose.

Strengthening the Safeguarding Net

The regulator remains vocal about its concerns regarding the safety of customer money, particularly if payments firms fail. In response to persistent weaknesses, the FCA is set to implement its Safeguarding Supplementary Regime in May 2026.

Electronic money institutions safeguarded approximately £26billion in 2024, yet the FCA warned that many firms still lack robust risk management frameworks and wind-down plans. The regulator noted it expects an increase in “adverse” audit opinions in the short term as standards are tightened across the sector.

Integrity and Financial Crime

Protecting financial system integrity remains a top priority, with a specific focus on slowing the growth of authorised push payment (APP) fraud and money laundering. Firms are expected to invest in “right skills” to design and test systems and controls, rather than relying on legacy processes.

The FCA also confirmed it will continue to consolidate the functions of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) into its own operations where possible ahead of formal legislation. This is intended to create a more agile and responsive environment, though it places the onus on firms to manage a shifting regulatory landscape while maintaining the high standards required by the Consumer Duty.

As the FCA moves toward publishing final policy statements on its cryptoasset regime and stablecoin issuance later this year, the industry must now decide if it can innovate at the speed the regulator expects while meeting these increasingly rigorous safety requirements.

U.S. Senators Unveil Landmark Bitcoin Mining, Reserve Bill

info@uweb3.io
-
0
U.S. Senators Unveil Landmark Bitcoin Mining, Reserve Bill

Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Cynthia Lummis introduced legislation Monday aimed at reshaping the U.S. digital asset mining sector, tightening supply chains, and embedding bitcoin into federal reserve strategy.

The proposal, titled the “Mined in America Act,” would establish a federal certification program for domestic crypto mining operations while phasing out reliance on foreign-manufactured hardware.

It also seeks to codify Donald Trump’s executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, placing the policy on statutory footing, according to a release on the matter.

“Digital asset mining is a big part of our economy. We should be doing it here in America,” Cassidy said in a statement, framing the bill as a supply chain and manufacturing initiative.

Lummis tied the legislation to a broader push to position the United States as a global hub for digital assets. “The Mined in America Act brings this industry home through forward-thinking initiatives to secure our financial future,” she said.

The bill directs the Department of Commerce to create a voluntary “Mined in America” certification for mining facilities and pools that meet security and sourcing standards. Certified operators would be required to transition away from hardware linked to foreign adversaries over a phased timeline, with the goal of full compliance by the end of the decade.

Lawmakers and industry advocates have pointed to a stark imbalance in the current mining ecosystem. While the United States controls an estimated 38% of global bitcoin hash rate, roughly 97% of specialized mining hardware is produced by Chinese firms, including Bitmain and MicroBT.