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How DeFi is quietly rebuilding the fixed-income stack for institutional capital

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For years, tokenization has been framed as crypto’s bridge to Wall Street. Put Treasuries onchain. Issue tokenized money market funds. Represent equities digitally. The assumption was simple: if assets move onchain, institutions will follow.

But tokenization alone was never the endgame. As we recently argued in our institutional outlook, the real institutional unlock isn’t digitizing assets – it’s financializing yield.

Following the regulatory clarity that emerged in 2025, institutional interest in digital assets has shifted from exploratory exposure to infrastructure-level participation. Surveys increasingly suggest that institutional engagement with DeFi could rise sharply over the next couple of years, while a meaningful share of allocators are exploring tokenized assets. Yet large allocators are not entering crypto solely to hold tokenized wrappers. They are entering for yield, capital efficiency, and programmable collateral. That requires a different kind of DeFi than the retail-built one in 2021.

In traditional finance, fixed-income instruments are rarely held in isolation. They are repo’d, pledged, rehypothecated, stripped, hedged and embedded into structured products. Yield is traded independently of principal, and collateral moves fluidly across markets. The plumbing matters as much as the product.

DeFi is now beginning to replicate those core functions.

A tokenized Treasury or equity is only marginally useful if it behaves like a static certificate. Institutions want tokenized assets to become functioning, working financial instruments: collateral that can be deployed, financed and risk-managed; yield that can be isolated, priced and traded; and positions that can be integrated into broader strategies without breaking compliance constraints.

That is the shift from first-order tokenization to second-order yield markets.

Early design patterns already point in this direction. Hybrid market structures are emerging in which permissioned, regulated assets can be used as collateral while borrowing is facilitated by using permissionless stablecoins. At the same time, yield trading architectures are expanding the range of activities investors can undertake with tokenized assets by separating principal exposure from the yield stream. Once the yield component of an onchain asset can be priced, traded, and composed, tokenized instruments become usable in strategies that are much closer to what allocators already run in traditional markets.

For institutions, this matters because it turns real-world assets (RWAs) from passive exposure into active portfolio tools. If yield can be traded independently, then hedging and duration management become more feasible, and structured exposures become possible without rebuilding the entire stack off-chain. Tokenization stops being a narrative and starts becoming market infrastructure.

However, yield infrastructure alone will not bring institutional scale. Institutional constraints that shaped traditional markets have not disappeared; they are being translated into code.

One of the most important constraints is confidentiality. Public blockchains expose balances, positions, and transaction flows in ways that conflict with how professional capital operates. Visible liquidation levels invite predatory strategies, public trade history reveals positioning, and treasury management becomes transparent to competitors. For institutions accustomed to controlled disclosure and information asymmetry, these are not philosophical objections – they are operational risks.

Historically, privacy in crypto has been treated as a regulatory liability. What is emerging instead is privacy as compliance-enabling infrastructure.

Zero-knowledge systems can prove transactions are valid without revealing sensitive details. Selective disclosure mechanisms can enable institutions to share limited visibility with auditors, regulators, or tax authorities without disclosing the entire balance sheet. Proof systems can demonstrate that funds are not linked to sanctioned or illicit sources without disclosing broader transaction history. Even approaches such as fully homomorphic encryption point toward a future in which certain kinds of computation can occur on encrypted data, widening the set of financial actions that can be performed privately while retaining verifiability where required.

This is not ‘privacy as opacity’. It is programmable confidentiality, and it more closely resembles established market structures, such as confidential brokerage workflows or regulated dark pools, than it does anonymous shadow finance. For institutions, that distinction is the difference between a system that is unusable and one that can be deployed at scale.

A second constraint is compliance. Regulatory clarity has reduced existential uncertainty, but it has also raised expectations. Institutional capital demands eligibility controls, identity verification, sanctions screening, auditability and clear operational regimes. If the next phase of DeFi is going to intermediate real-world value at scale, compliance cannot remain an afterthought bolted onto a permissionless system. It has to be embedded into market design.

That is why one of the most important patterns emerging in institutional DeFi is a hybrid architecture combining permissioned collateral with permissionless liquidity. Tokenized RWAs can be restricted at the smart contract level to approved participants, while borrowing can occur via widely used stablecoins and open liquidity pools. Identity and eligibility checks can be automated. Asset provenance and valuation constraints can be enforced. Audit trails can be produced without forcing every operational detail into public view.

This approach resolves a long-standing tension. Institutions can deploy regulated assets into DeFi without compromising core requirements around custody, investor protection and sanctions compliance, while still benefiting from the liquidity and composability that made DeFi powerful in the first place.

Taken together, these shifts point to a broader reality where DeFi is not simply attracting institutional capital; it is, in fact, being reshaped by institutional constraints. The dominant narrative in crypto still centers on retail cycles and token volatility, but beneath that surface, protocol design is evolving toward a more familiar destination – a fixed-income stack where collateral moves, yield trades and compliance is operationalized.

Tokenization was phase one because it proved assets could live onchain. Phase two is about making those assets behave like real financial instruments, with yield markets and risk controls that institutions recognize. When that transition matures, the conversation shifts from crypto adoption to capital markets migration.

That shift is already underway.

Crypto firms are ditching hundreds of workers to bet the house on AI

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The Algorand Foundation on Wednesday joined the ranks of crypto firms slashing headcount, losing 25% of its fewer than 200 employees and citing “the uncertain global macro environment” and a broader crypto downturn.

The cuts arrived as a wave of layoffs proliferates across the industry. In February, Gemini Space Station (GEMI) said it would eliminate roughly 200 positions, about a quarter of its staff, a figure that had grown to 30% by mid-March. On Thursday, Crypto.com said it is trimming 12%, about 180 roles.

That’s on top of 20 employees who got the chop at OP Labs, the company building layer-2 blockchain Optimism, earlier this month and the five full-time employees and three contractors let go at PIP Labs, the team behind Story Protocol, 10% of its workforce. Messari, a crypto data provider that now bills itself as an AI-first company, announced its third round of layoffs since 2023 alongside a CEO change, without giving a number.

Official explanations varied. Algorand pointed squarely at macro conditions and weak token prices, though many framed their cuts as a pivot toward greater use of AI in the workflow.

“AI is now too powerful not to use at Gemini,” the company said in its letter to shareholders. “Not using AI at Gemini will soon be the equivalent of showing up to work with a typewriter instead of a laptop.”

“We are joining the list of companies integrating enterprise-wide AI,” a Crypto.com spokesperson told CoinDesk on Thursday, pointing to increased efficiencies needing fewer workers. CEO Kris Marszalek on X said companies that do not pivot toward integrating AI into their processes will fail.

Algorand’s cuts reportedly hit community management and business development roles, not positions obviously displaced by AI. To be fair, the company blamed the broader crypto environment. It’s ALGO token recently traded around $0.09, down 98% from its 2019 peak. Bitcoin , the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has lost 20% this quarter.

Industry consolidation

Industry observers pointed to a broader consolidation dynamic. Entire crypto sectors like restaking, DePIN and layer 2s, which were once flush with talent have contracted sharply, while M&A activity is adding to redundancies as acqui-hires — employees acquired by buying a company — displace legacy employees.

“I see no real indication that these layoffs have anything to do with AI workforce replacement at scale,” said Dan Escow, the founder of crypto recruitment agency Up Top. “Entire categories like restaking, DePIN and L2s that were once robust with talent are basically non-existent. Companies are forced into cost-cutting mode to buy time to figure out how to execute on whatever comes next.”

The broader hiring picture supports that reading. New job postings across major crypto job boards ran at roughly 6.5 per day in January, down around 80% from the same period a year earlier.

Just the companies mentioned in this story — excluding Messari, which did not disclose numbers — have announced around 450 job cuts in a matter of weeks. Thay may be the tip of the iceberg, in crypto winter of 2022 CoinDesk tracked more than 26,000 job losses over the course of the year, a tally that took months to become apparent.

As Bitcoin lies flat, Hyperliquid tops weekly gains after Grayscale files for HYPE ETF – DL News

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  • HYPE is the biggest gainer over the past week out of large cap coins.
  • Its rise comes as decentralised exchange Hyperliquid becomes mainstream.
  • Bitcoin’s price has barely budged over the past week.

Large cap cryptocurrencies were mostly flat over a seven-day period on Saturday, but one coin stood out: Hyperliquid’s native coin, HYPE.

HYPE, the 14th largest coin by market value, was up nearly 6% over a weekly period, and was priced at a little over $40, according to CoinGecko.

Its rise came after crypto asset manager Grayscale on Friday filed for a new product, a “Grayscale HYPE ETF”, that would trade on the Nasdaq if approved.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, hadn’t budged over a seven-day timeframe. The leading cryptocurrency was trading for $70,943 at 10am in New York.

What’s all the HYPE?

Grayscale’s filing comes as the decentralised crypto exchange sees a surge in trading as traders bet on the price of other assets like oil and gold.

Commodity trading on Hyperliquid has become popular since the US and Israel attacked Iran; when traditional markets are closed, Hyperliquid continues processing trades, allowing speculators to make bets on weekends.

Its native coin, HYPE, is up 56% year-to-date.

Hyperliquid is so popular that the S&P 500 this week gave crypto platform Trade[XYZ] the green light to debut a new derivative contract on the exchange giving non-US investors exposure to the equity index.

Two days after it debuted, it hit $100 million in 24-hour volume — making it one of the 10 largest markets on the booming blockchain.

Other market movements

Elsewhere, Ethereum rose 4% over a 24-hour period, hitting $2,163 per coin. Its modest rise came despite US investors cashing out of Ethereum ETFs this week.

XRP also rose by close to 4% over the same period, and was trading hands for $1.44 on Saturday.

Crypto market movers

  • Bitcoin was trading for $70,943 per coin on Saturday, flat over the past day.
  • Ethereum’s price touched $2,163, a 24-hour rise of 1%.

What we’re reading

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

My Honest Review Of Herz P1 Smart Scale Featuring 56 Comprehensive Body Metrics

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Tired of stepping on a scale that only tells you one thing? On paper,  Herz P1 Smart Scale promised to transform your bathroom into a clinical-grade health laboratory, delivering 56 comprehensive body metrics that reveal the complete story of your wellness journey. From consumer reports, this is not just another bathroom scale; it is your personal health analyst, metabolic age calculator, and fitness progress tracker rolled into one sleek device.

While traditional scales leave you guessing whether that pound lost was muscle, water, or actual fat, the Herz P1 uses advanced 8-electrode bioelectrical impedance technology to scan your entire body from fingertips to toes. It separates your arms, legs, and torso into distinct segments, measuring everything from visceral fat wrapped around your organs to the muscle balance between your left and right limbs. With zero monthly subscription fees and seamless integration with Apple Health and Google Fit, this revolutionary device puts professional-grade body composition analysis in your hands forever. Whether you are tracking fitness goals, managing health conditions, or simply curious about what is happening beneath your skin, the Herz P1 delivers insights that standard scales cannot touch.

Understanding the Herz P1 Smart Scale Technology

The Herz P1 Smart Scale represents a paradigm shift in home health monitoring, bridging the gap between expensive medical equipment and consumer wellness devices. At its core lies sophisticated bioelectrical impedance analysis technology that sends safe, imperceptible electrical signals through your body to measure composition with medical-grade accuracy.

What sets the Herz P1 apart from conventional bathroom scales is its 8-electrode system. Most smart scales use only four contact points under your feet, which limits their ability to accurately measure your upper body. The Herz P1 features a retractable handle that you grip during measurement, creating a complete circuit from your hands through your arms, torso, and legs, down to your feet. This full-body loop enables the device to analyze each segment of your body independently, providing granular insights that 4-electrode scales simply cannot achieve.

The measurement process takes mere seconds. You step onto the tempered glass platform barefoot, pull up the integrated handle, and hold it at chest level. Dual-frequency bioelectrical impedance signals travel through your body, measuring resistance patterns that vary based on tissue composition. Muscle, fat, bone, and water all conduct electricity differently, allowing sophisticated algorithms to calculate 56 distinct body metrics with remarkable precision. The technology shows a 97% correlation to professional-grade devices used in medical facilities and research laboratories.

The data processing happens instantaneously. As you step off the scale, your smartphone receives a comprehensive analysis via Bluetooth connectivity. The extra-large 76mm LED display on the scale itself shows your weight and body fat percentage immediately, but the real magic happens in the companion app. Here, you can dive deep into metrics like skeletal muscle percentage, visceral fat rating, metabolic age, bone mass, protein levels, and hydration status across different body segments.

One of the most powerful features is segmental analysis. The Herz P1 does not just tell you your total body fat percentage; it shows you precisely where that fat is distributed. You can see if your arms carry more fat than your legs, whether your trunk fat levels pose health risks, and if muscle development is balanced between your left and right sides. This granularity is invaluable for athletes addressing muscle imbalances, individuals recovering from injuries, or anyone seeking to understand their body composition in detail.

Herz P1 Smart scale measures both subcutaneous fat, which sits under your skin and is relatively harmless, and visceral fat, the dangerous type that wraps around your internal organs. Elevated visceral fat levels correlate strongly with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, even in people who appear thin. By tracking this hidden health threat, the Herz P1 provides early warning signs that could motivate lifestyle changes before serious conditions develop.

Your metabolic age calculation compares your basal metabolic rate and body composition to average values for different age groups. If you are 45 years old but your body functions like a typical 52-year-old, that metabolic age gap signals that your health and fitness levels need attention. Conversely, maintaining a metabolic age younger than your chronological age indicates excellent health maintenance.

The Herz P1 tracks hydration through multiple lenses, measuring total body water, intracellular water within your cells, and extracellular water in surrounding tissues. Proper hydration affects everything from joint lubrication to cognitive function, and imbalances in water distribution can signal inflammation, edema, or nutritional deficiencies. Protein mass measurements ensure your body has adequate building blocks for muscle repair, immune function, and tissue maintenance.

Every measurement automatically records your resting heart rate, establishing a daily cardiovascular baseline without requiring a separate fitness tracker. Consistent tracking helps identify trends; a gradually increasing resting heart rate might indicate overtraining, inadequate recovery, or emerging cardiovascular concerns worth discussing with your physician.

Herz P1 smart scale supports unlimited user profiles, making it perfect for families or shared households. Each person gets their own data history, and the scale automatically recognizes users based on their measurement patterns. The app generates professional PDF reports that you can share with healthcare providers, personal trainers, or nutritionists, bringing objective data to health conversations.

Perhaps most importantly, the Herz P1 Smart Scale eliminates the subscription trap that plagues many smart health devices. Once you purchase the scale, every feature and metric remains accessible forever at no additional cost. Your health data belongs to you, stored securely and available whenever you need it, without monthly fees or feature paywalls degrading your experience.

Make A Purchase Today From The Official Website At Discounted Price

Comprehensive Features of the Herz P1 Smart Scale

Here are the amazing features as disclosed by the manufacturer:

8-Electrode Dual-Frequency Technology

The foundation of the Herz P1’s exceptional accuracy lies in its 8-electrode sensor array. Four electrodes are embedded in the tempered glass platform beneath your feet, while four more are integrated into the retractable handle you grip during measurement. This configuration creates a complete electrical circuit through your entire body, unlike 4-electrode scales that can only estimate upper body composition based on lower body measurements. The dual-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis uses two different electrical frequencies to penetrate tissues at varying depths, enabling the device to distinguish between intracellular and extracellular water, which is crucial for accurate body composition calculations. This technology delivers results that show 97% correlation to DEXA scans and professional body composition analyzers used in medical research facilities.

Segmental Body Analysis

One of the Herz P1’s most powerful capabilities is its ability to analyze your body in segments rather than as a single entity. The scale measures your left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, and trunk independently, providing muscle mass and fat distribution data for each region. This segmental approach reveals insights impossible to obtain from whole-body measurements alone. Athletes can identify muscle imbalances that might lead to injury, such as significantly weaker development on one side of the body. Physical therapy patients can track recovery progress in specific limbs. Fitness enthusiasts can monitor whether their training programs are developing proportionate muscle mass across their body. The trunk segment analysis is particularly valuable for tracking dangerous visceral fat accumulation around internal organs, which poses far greater health risks than subcutaneous fat distributed in limbs.

56 Clinical-Grade Body Metrics

The Herz P1 measures an extensive array of health markers that paint a complete picture of your physiological state. Weight and body mass index provide baseline measurements. Body fat percentage, visceral fat rating, and subcutaneous fat mass reveal your fat composition and distribution. Skeletal muscle percentage, lean body mass, and segmental muscle mass track your functional muscle tissue. Metabolic age and basal metabolic rate indicate how efficiently your body burns energy at rest. Bone mass measurements help monitor skeletal health and detect early signs of bone density loss. Total body water, intracellular water, and extracellular water percentages assess hydration status at cellular and tissue levels. Protein mass ensures adequate nutritional building blocks for tissue repair and immune function. Body type classification categorizes your physique based on muscle-to-fat ratios. Obesity degree provides a standardized measure of weight-related health risks. Resting heart rate establishes cardiovascular fitness baselines. Each metric includes normal ranges, trend graphs, and contextual explanations to help you understand what the numbers mean for your health.

Metabolic Age and Visceral Fat Tracking

 Two of the most actionable metrics the Herz P1 provides are metabolic age and visceral fat rating. Your metabolic age compares your body’s functional efficiency to population averages, telling you whether your metabolism operates like someone younger or older than your chronological age. A 40-year-old with a metabolic age of 52 receives a clear signal that lifestyle changes are needed. The visceral fat rating measures the dangerous fat that accumulates around your liver, pancreas, and intestines, which standard scales cannot detect. Unlike subcutaneous fat that you can pinch, visceral fat is invisible from the outside but dramatically increases risks for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and metabolic syndrome. Elevated visceral fat can exist even in people with normal body weight, making it a silent health threat. The Herz P1’s ability to quantify this hidden risk factor enables early intervention through dietary changes, increased physical activity, and stress management before serious health consequences develop.

Muscle Balance and Quality Assessment

As we age, muscle loss accelerates while fat storage increases, a process called sarcopenia that undermines metabolism, mobility, and independence. The Herz P1 helps you fight this decline by tracking skeletal muscle mass with precision. The scale measures muscle in each limb and your core separately, revealing imbalances that might indicate injury risk, improper training, or the need for corrective exercise. Left-right muscle mass comparisons show whether you favor one side of your body, a common issue for athletes and desk workers alike. Leg muscle quality measurements are particularly important for maintaining mobility and preventing falls in later life. Core strength tracking ensures you develop the trunk stability essential for spinal health and functional movement. By monitoring these metrics weekly, you can adjust your strength training to build balanced, functional muscle that preserves youthful metabolism and physical capability.

Comprehensive Hydration Monitoring

Proper hydration affects nearly every bodily function, yet most people rely on thirst cues that only signal dehydration after it has already impaired performance. The Herz P1 takes guesswork out of hydration with three distinct water measurements. Total body water percentage shows your overall hydration level relative to body weight. Intracellular water measures the fluid inside your cells, which is critical for cellular metabolism and muscle volume. Extracellular water tracks fluid in surrounding tissues; elevated levels may indicate inflammation, edema, or cardiovascular strain. These measurements help athletes optimize performance and recovery, reveal whether weight fluctuations are fat loss or water retention, and identify potential health issues like chronic inflammation or kidney function concerns that warrant medical attention.

Resting Heart Rate Monitoring

Every time you step on the Herz P1, the scale automatically records your resting heart rate through the hand electrodes. This passive cardiovascular monitoring requires no extra effort or wearable devices. Over time, you build a detailed baseline of your heart’s resting efficiency. Cardiovascular fitness improvements manifest as a lower resting heart rate; well-conditioned hearts pump more blood per beat, reducing the frequency needed to circulate blood. Conversely, an increasing resting heart rate trend might signal overtraining, inadequate recovery, emerging illness, or cardiovascular concerns worth discussing with your physician. Morning measurements provide the most consistent resting heart rate data, as physical activity, stress, and caffeine consumption throughout the day can temporarily elevate your heart rate.

Bone Mass and Skeletal Health

Bone health often receives attention only after fractures occur or osteoporosis develops, but maintaining bone density throughout life prevents these outcomes. The Herz P1 estimates bone mass based on your overall body composition, providing a trending indicator of skeletal health. While not a replacement for medical bone density scans, regular monitoring can reveal concerning downward trends that warrant professional evaluation. Adequate bone mass depends on proper nutrition, particularly calcium and vitamin D, along with weight-bearing exercise that stimulates bone remodeling. Tracking this metric is especially important for postmenopausal women, individuals with family histories of osteoporosis, and anyone following restrictive diets that might compromise skeletal health.

Protein Mass Tracking

Protein serves as the fundamental building block for muscle tissue, immune system function, enzyme production, and cellular repair. The Herz P1 calculates your protein mass to ensure your body maintains adequate reserves for these essential functions. Insufficient protein intake leads to muscle breakdown, weakened immunity, and impaired recovery from exercise or illness. This metric is valuable for athletes ensuring they consume enough protein to support training demands, older adults fighting age-related muscle loss, and anyone following plant-based or restricted diets where protein adequacy requires careful attention. By tracking protein mass alongside muscle measurements, you can verify that your nutrition supports your fitness goals rather than undermining them.

Basal Metabolic Rate Calculation

Your basal metabolic rate represents the calories your body burns at complete rest to maintain vital functions like breathing, circulation, and cellular metabolism. The Herz P1 calculates your BMR based on your body composition, providing a personalized baseline for nutrition planning. Unlike generic calculators that estimate BMR from age, height, and weight alone, the Herz P1 accounts for your actual muscle mass, which burns significantly more calories than fat tissue. This precision helps you determine appropriate caloric intake for weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain goals. Understanding your BMR also reveals how metabolism changes over time; losing muscle mass or gaining fat reduces BMR, making weight management increasingly difficult. Preserving or building lean mass keeps your metabolism elevated, making long-term weight maintenance more sustainable.

Zero Monthly Subscription Fees

In an era where smart devices increasingly charge recurring fees to access basic functionality, the Herz P1 takes a refreshingly different approach. Your purchase includes permanent, unlimited access to all 56 body metrics, complete measurement history, data exports, and app features without any subscription costs whatsoever. Your health data belongs to you, not to a company holding it hostage behind monthly paywalls. This ownership extends indefinitely; whether you use the scale for six months or sixteen years, every feature remains available without additional charges. The absence of subscription pressure also means the device continues functioning even if the manufacturer eventually discontinues support, unlike subscription-dependent scales that become expensive paperweights when cloud services shut down.

Unlimited Data History and PDF Export

Every measurement you take is automatically logged and stored indefinitely, creating a comprehensive health timeline spanning months or years. The app visualizes trends through intuitive graphs that reveal long-term patterns invisible in day-to-day fluctuations. You can track how body composition evolved during different training programs, see seasonal variation in hydration or body fat, and identify which lifestyle changes produced meaningful results. The professional PDF export feature generates doctor-ready reports summarizing your health metrics and trends. These reports are invaluable during medical appointments, providing objective data that enhances conversations about weight management, cardiovascular health, or fitness progress. Personal trainers and nutritionists can use your measurement history to design evidence-based programs and track their effectiveness over time.

Multi-User Support with Automatic Recognition

The Herz P1 accommodates unlimited user profiles, making it perfect for families, couples, or shared living situations. Each person creates their own profile with personalized settings and separate measurement history. The scale’s intelligent algorithms automatically recognize users based on their measurement patterns, so you do not need to manually select your profile before each weigh-in. This seamless experience encourages consistent tracking without adding friction to your routine. Individual data privacy is maintained; each user can only access their own measurements and trends through their personal app login.

Seamless App Integration

The Unique Health companion app transforms raw measurements into actionable insights through clean, intuitive interfaces. High-speed Bluetooth connectivity ensures measurements sync to your phone within seconds. The app integrates with Apple Health, Google Fit, Fitbit, and Samsung Health, allowing you to consolidate body composition data with activity tracking, nutrition logging, and sleep monitoring in a single ecosystem. This interoperability is essential for understanding how different lifestyle factors interact to influence your health outcomes. Cross-platform synchronization means your data remains accessible whether you switch between iOS and Android devices or use tablets alongside smartphones.

Extended Battery Life

Few things undermine healthy habits faster than devices that constantly need charging. The Herz P1 operates for up to 180 days on a single charge, effectively eliminating battery management from your routine. Even with daily measurements from multiple family members, you can expect several months between charges. The rechargeable battery design is more environmentally sustainable than models requiring disposable batteries, and the USB charging interface uses standard cables you likely already own. Low battery indicators provide ample warning before power runs out, preventing measurement interruptions.

Premium Build Quality

The Herz P1’s construction reflects its medical-grade aspirations. The platform uses 6mm high-strength tempered glass that safely supports up to 400 pounds while maintaining a sleek, modern aesthetic. The extra-large 76mm embedded LED display provides instant readability even in low lighting conditions, showing weight and body fat percentage without requiring you to check your phone. The retractable handle mechanism is engineered for durability, smoothly extending and retracting thousands of times without loosening or malfunctioning. Precise 0.1-pound increments enable tracking small changes that motivate continued progress. The scale’s compact 12.8 by 11.8-inch footprint fits comfortably in most bathrooms while providing stable footing during measurements.

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Key Benefits of Using the Herz P1 Smart Scale

The Herz P1 Smart Scale delivers transformative benefits that extend far beyond simple weight tracking, fundamentally changing how you understand and optimize your health. The most immediate advantage is replacing guesswork with precision. Traditional scales leave you wondering whether lost pounds represent fat reduction or muscle loss; the Herz P1 eliminates this uncertainty by separately quantifying each tissue type. This clarity prevents counterproductive dieting that sacrifices metabolism-boosting muscle while preserving body fat.

The visceral fat measurement capability offers potentially life-saving early warning about internal health threats. Many people with normal body weight harbor dangerous levels of organ-surrounding fat that drive inflammation, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. By making this invisible risk factor visible, the Herz P1 enables targeted lifestyle modifications before serious health consequences develop. This preventive insight is invaluable for anyone with family histories of diabetes, heart disease, or metabolic syndrome.

The segmental analysis prevents the frustration of plateau periods that derail many fitness journeys. Even when overall weight stalls, the Herz P1 reveals progress through muscle gains in specific body regions or fat reduction in targeted areas. Seeing your arms develop lean mass while trunk fat decreases provides motivation to persist when the scale number seems stuck. This detailed feedback helps you understand whether your program is working, rather than abandoning effective approaches due to misleading weight stability.

The metabolic age calculation transforms abstract health metrics into a relatable, actionable number. Learning your body functions like someone a decade older creates urgency for change, while achieving a metabolic age younger than your chronological years validates your healthy lifestyle choices. This single metric effectively communicates overall physiological health in ways that individual measurements cannot.

For aging adults, the muscle mass and bone health tracking helps fight the physical decline that compromises independence and quality of life. Regular monitoring reveals whether strength training and nutrition adequately preserve lean mass and skeletal integrity, enabling course corrections before muscle loss or bone fragility become severe. This proactive approach to aging maintains mobility, metabolism, and autonomy longer.

Athletes benefit from the muscle balance assessments that reveal training imbalances or injury risks. Identifying significant strength differences between limbs enables corrective exercises that improve performance and reduce injury likelihood. The comprehensive recovery metrics including hydration status and resting heart rate help optimize training intensity and rest periods.

The absence of subscription fees eliminates the psychological burden of recurring payments and ensures your investment delivers value indefinitely. You control your health data permanently without worrying about price increases, feature restrictions, or service discontinuation. This ownership model respects your privacy and autonomy while providing superior long-term value compared to subscription-dependent alternatives.

Finally, the professional reporting capability transforms casual tracking into clinically relevant data. Bringing objective measurements to medical appointments enables more productive health conversations and helps physicians monitor the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions for conditions like obesity, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. The data-driven approach replaces vague self-reports with precise trend analysis, improving care quality.

Advantages of the Herz P1 Smart Scale

The Herz P1 excels in areas where competing products fall short. The 8-electrode technology with retractable handle provides genuinely accurate full-body scanning rather than lower-body measurements with upper-body estimates. This architectural advantage directly translates to superior measurement precision, particularly for arm and torso composition analysis that 4-electrode scales cannot reliably capture.

The comprehensive 56-metric analysis surpasses most consumer devices, delivering clinical-grade insights previously requiring expensive professional equipment or laboratory visits. The segmental body breakdown, visceral fat quantification, and metabolic age calculation provide actionable information that standard smart scales simply do not measure.

The permanent zero-subscription model stands in stark contrast to competitors who lock basic features behind monthly paywalls. This approach respects user ownership while delivering superior long-term value. After the initial purchase, the Herz P1 costs nothing to operate indefinitely, making it more economical than subscription-dependent alternatives within a year or two of use.

The six-month battery life eliminates the maintenance burden that undermines consistent tracking habits. The device simply works, day after day, without requiring frequent charging or battery replacements. The reliable Bluetooth connectivity and smooth app experience remove technical friction that frustrates users of less-refined products.

The professional build quality, including tempered glass construction, high-capacity weight limit, and durable retractable handle, ensures years of reliable operation. The extra-large LED display provides instant feedback without phone dependency, while the compact footprint fits standard bathroom spaces.

Multi-user support with automatic recognition accommodates entire households without manual profile switching. The seamless ecosystem integration with Apple Health, Google Fit, and other platforms unifies body composition data with broader wellness tracking. The unlimited data history and PDF export capabilities transform measurements into long-term health records suitable for medical consultation and program optimization.

Who Should Use the Herz P1 Smart Scale

The Herz P1 serves diverse user groups with distinct health and fitness needs. Weight loss seekers benefit enormously from the differentiation between fat loss and muscle preservation, ensuring dietary changes produce healthy body composition improvements rather than metabolism-damaging muscle catabolism. The visceral fat tracking reveals internal health changes that motivate continued adherence when visible results lag.

Fitness enthusiasts and athletes gain competitive advantages through muscle balance analysis, segmental tracking, and recovery monitoring. The detailed metrics enable program optimization based on objective progress rather than subjective impressions. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, runners, and recreational exercisers all benefit from understanding how training affects body composition beyond simple weight fluctuations.

Health-conscious individuals managing chronic conditions find value in the cardiovascular monitoring, metabolic age tracking, and comprehensive wellness metrics. People with diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, or obesity can quantify how lifestyle modifications influence their health status, bringing objective data to medical appointments that enhances care quality.

Aging adults concerned about maintaining independence and mobility can track muscle preservation, bone health, and metabolic efficiency. Early detection of sarcopenia or metabolic decline enables interventions before physical capabilities seriously deteriorate. The device helps aging populations stay proactive about health rather than reactive to medical crises.

Families seeking to instill healthy habits benefit from multi-user support that accommodates different age groups with individualized tracking. Parents can monitor children’s growth patterns while tracking their own fitness goals, all through a single device that encourages collective health consciousness.

Medical professionals and personal trainers use client data for evidence-based program design and progress evaluation. The professional reporting eliminates subjective assessments with quantified measurements that document intervention effectiveness. Anyone serious about understanding their body composition rather than simply monitoring weight will find the Herz P1 indispensable.

Make A Purchase Today From The Official Website At Discounted Price

Why the Herz P1 Smart Scale Comes Highly Recommended

The Herz P1 Smart Scale earns strong recommendations for several compelling reasons that distinguish it from countless competitors in the crowded smart scale marketplace. The primary recommendation driver is the genuine measurement accuracy delivered by the 8-electrode system. Unlike 4-electrode scales that mathematically estimate upper body composition from lower body impedance, the Herz P1 actually measures your arms, torso, and legs through direct electrical pathways. This architectural difference produces demonstrably superior accuracy, with the device showing 97% correlation to professional-grade body composition analyzers used in research facilities.

The comprehensive metric suite addresses real health questions that basic scales cannot answer. Knowing whether lost weight came from fat or muscle fundamentally changes how you approach nutrition and exercise. Understanding that dangerous visceral fat wraps around your organs despite normal weight motivates lifestyle changes that prevent serious disease. Discovering your metabolic age lags behind your chronological age creates urgency for health optimization. These insights drive behavior changes that simple weight tracking cannot inspire.

The value proposition is exceptional. Medical-grade body composition analysis previously required expensive DEXA scans, hydrostatic weighing, or visits to specialized facilities. The Herz P1 brings this capability into your home with one-time purchase pricing that costs less than a few professional body composition assessments. The zero-subscription model eliminates recurring costs that make competing smart scales expensive over time, while ensuring your health data remains permanently accessible.

The user experience design removes friction that undermines consistent tracking habits. The six-month battery life means you never worry about charging. The automatic user recognition eliminates profile selection steps. The instant Bluetooth syncing and intuitive app interface make measurement review effortless. The retractable handle extends and retracts smoothly without fighting mechanisms or requiring careful positioning. Every aspect of the product feels refined rather than minimally viable, encouraging daily use rather than occasional reference.

The segmental analysis prevents the demotivation that causes many people to abandon fitness journeys. Plateau periods where weight stalls are normal parts of body recomposition, but traditional scales make these plateaus feel like failures. The Herz P1 reveals continued progress through muscle gains and fat redistribution that maintain motivation during stalls. This psychological support significantly increases adherence rates to long-term health programs.

The medical relevance of the data transforms casual tracking into clinically useful health monitoring. Physicians increasingly recommend home body composition monitoring for patients managing obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. The professional PDF reports provide objective documentation that enhances care quality and enables data-driven treatment adjustments. This clinical applicability makes the Herz P1 a legitimate health management tool rather than a wellness gadget.

Finally, the product demonstrates genuine respect for user privacy and autonomy through its ownership model. Your health data belongs to you, stored locally with cloud backup under your control. No company holds your measurements hostage behind subscription paywalls or monetizes your personal health information. This ethical approach to health technology deserves support and recommendation.

Verified Customer Reviews

Sandra. D “After struggling with weight loss plateaus for months, the Herz P1 revealed I was actually losing fat while gaining muscle. The segmental analysis showed my legs were getting stronger even when the scale weight barely budged. Understanding my visceral fat levels motivated me to stick with my program when I otherwise would have quit. Worth every penny.”

Jackson T., Fitness Enthusiast”I have tried three different smart scales, but the Herz P1 is the first with measurements that actually make sense. The handle-based scanning captures upper body composition my old scale completely missed. The muscle balance feature identified a left-right imbalance I did not know existed. Game changer for serious training.”

Peterson- Health-Conscious Consumer”My metabolic age calculation was a wake-up call. At 52, seeing my body functioning like a 61-year-old scared me into finally taking health seriously. Six months later, I have reduced my metabolic age to 49. The no-subscription model means I will keep tracking forever without worrying about recurring costs.”

Conclusion: A Transformative Health Technology

The Herz P1 Smart Scale represents a genuine advancement in personal health technology, transcending the limitations of conventional bathroom scales to deliver clinical-grade body composition analysis in a consumer-friendly package. Its 8-electrode architecture, comprehensive metric suite, and segmental analysis capabilities provide insights that meaningfully improve health decision-making and motivation.

What distinguishes the Herz P1 from countless alternatives is the combination of measurement accuracy, feature completeness, value pricing, and user experience refinement. The device does not compromise in pursuit of affordability, nor does it add subscription barriers to artificially inflate revenue. Instead, it delivers professional-grade capabilities with consumer-grade convenience at a one-time price point that provides exceptional long-term value.

For anyone serious about understanding their body composition, tracking fitness progress, managing health conditions, or preventing age-related decline, the Herz P1 offers tangible benefits that justify the investment. The visceral fat detection alone could prevent serious health consequences for individuals unaware they harbor dangerous internal fat deposits despite normal weight. The muscle preservation tracking helps aging adults maintain independence and mobility. The metabolic insights enable evidence-based program optimization for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

The seamless integration with existing health ecosystems, unlimited data history, professional reporting capabilities, and multi-user support make the scale suitable for diverse households and use cases. The exceptional build quality and extended battery life ensure years of reliable operation without maintenance burdens.

In a marketplace saturated with minimally differentiated smart scales, the Herz P1 stands out as a thoughtfully engineered tool that respects user intelligence, privacy, and autonomy while delivering measurements accurate enough for clinical relevance. For the serious health tracker, it is not just a scale but an essential component of a comprehensive wellness strategy.

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Bitcoin options signal extreme fear as downside protection premium hits new all-time high, says VanEck

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Bitcoin traders are paying record prices for downside protection, according to VanEck’s mid-March 2026 Bitcoin ChainCheck, a sign that investors remain defensive even as spot prices begin to stabilize.

In the report, senior VanEck analysts said bitcoin’s 30-day average price fell 19% from the prior period, while realized volatility dropped from about 80 to just above 50.

Futures funding rates also eased to 2.7% from 4.1%, suggesting leveraged speculation has cooled.

Options markets show investors are as cautious as it gets. VanEck said the put/call open interest ratio averaged 0.77 and peaked at 0.84, the highest level since June 2021, when China cracked down on bitcoin mining.

Traders spent about $685 million on put options over the past 30 days, while call premiums fell 12% to about $562 million, the report adds. Relative to spot volume, put premiums reached roughly 4 basis points, an all-time high in VanEck’s data.

“Relative to spot volume, put premiums reached an all-time high of roughly 4 basis points, roughly 3x the levels seen in mid-2022 following the Terra/Luna stablecoin collapse and the Ethereum staking liquidity crisis,” the report reads.

That means investors are paying up for insurance against further losses.

VanEck said that kind of fear has often marked turning points rather than fresh breakdowns. The firm found that, in the past six years, similar options that skewed readings were followed by average bitcoin gains of 13% over 90 days and 133% over 360 days.

The report also points out onchain activity has remained weak while miner selling remains contained.

The 7 Largest Publicly Traded Ethereum Treasury Firms

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In brief

  • Publicly traded companies are now racing to accumulate Ethereum.
  • Firms with strategic ETH reserves now account for more than 6% of the entire ETH supply.
  • The top holders include BitMine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, and Coinbase.

The trend of publicly traded companies adopting crypto treasury strategies may have started with Bitcoin, but it has since expanded to a wide variety of digital assets—including the second-largest crypto asset by market cap, Ethereum. 

Now the race to accumulate ETH is on, led by key figures like Fundstrat’s Tom Lee and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, who are championing public firms as they rally around Ethereum and its future. 

Per StrategicETHReserve.xyz, public entities with Ethereum treasuries maintain more than 7.3 million ETH valued at more than $16 billion, as of this writing, and over 6% of the entire supply. These are the biggest holders as of this writing.

1. BitMine Immersion Technologies

Led by crypto bull and Fundstrat CIO Tom Lee, BitMine Immersion Technologies burst onto the scene at the end of July 2025 when the firm detailed plans for an Ethereum treasury. (Disclosure: Lee is one of several angel investors in prediction market Myriad, which is operated by Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan.)

Formerly focused on Bitcoin mining, BitMine (BMNR) first secured a $250 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) fundraising round to begin its ETH purchases. 

Since that time, it hasn’t looked back, acquiring 4,595,562 ETH, worth around $10 billion as of this writing. The pile has grown so large at BitMine that the firm now ranks as the second-largest crypto treasury of any kind, trailing only Bitcoin behemoth Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) with its nearly $54 billion stash.

The aggressive buying spree has coincided with Lee’s seemingly unfathomable ETH price predictions, which include calls for $60,000 ETH. That’s a sizable multiple of the current price.

After planning a raise of $4.5 billion to accumulate the asset, Lee and company upsized their offering by $20 billion in August as BitMine aims to expand its already industry-leading Ethereum treasury. The firm is squarely focused on accumulating 5% of the circulating ETH supply—it holds around 3.8% as of this writing.

Though it continues to relentlessly purchase Ethereum, typically on a weekly basis, the firm sits on unrealized losses of more than $7 billion, according to crypto analytics platform DropsTab.

2. Sharplink

Gambling marketer turned Ethereum treasury company Sharplink (formerly SharpLink Gaming) holds the second-largest publicly traded ETH treasury. 

The firm maintains 869,154 ETH or $1.86 billion worth—around 87% of the way to its first stated goal of accumulating 1 million ETH.

While Sharplink’s existing business did not have immediate ties to crypto, it brought on direct ties to Ethereum when it shaped its board of directors. The firm’s chairman Joe Lubin is the co-founder of Ethereum itself, and founder and CEO of Ethereum software company, Consensys, the maker of popular crypto wallet, MetaMask.

(Disclaimer: Consensys is one of many investors in an editorially independent Decrypt)

Lubin and company have followed BitMine in a relentless pursuit of Ethereum, raising funds in a variety of ways including a recent $400 million direct offering, plus plans to collect up to $6 billion via stock sales

In July 2025, the firm added BlackRock’s former head of digital asset strategy Joseph Chalom as its newly appointed CEO. Later, it approved a $1.5 billion share buyback for instances in which the firm’s market cap traded at a discount to its net asset value. By mid-September, it had bought back around $32 million worth of SBET.

In October, Sharplink announced it would put $200 million worth of ETH into DeFi protocols on Consensys-incubated layer-2 scaling network, Linea. The firm also sits on the Linea Consortium, a group of firms that help drive adoption and distribute tokens from the network’s ecosystem fund.

While other Ethereum treasury firms have looked to other assets and initiatives to try and generate shareholder returns, in January 2026, Chalom told Decrypt that his firm would remain strictly focused on ETH and generating long-term value for shareholders.

3. The Ether Machine

There’s no questioning the business of The Ether Machine, a firm that will be made public via a merger of The Ether Reserve, LLC and blank-check company Dynamix.

The third-largest treasury on the list, The Ether Machine held 498,600 ETH—or $1.07 billion worth as of this writing—at the conclusion of November, the latest amount detailed in its investor updates.

Funded with startup capital and approximately 170,000 ETH from co-founder and chairman Andrew Keys, the Ether Machine stated a mandate to put its ETH to work on-chain or create a “machine” to grow its stash, differentiating it from more passive accumulation vehicles. 

On August 27, Dynamix moved on from its original DYNX ticker to ETHM in public markets. The Ether Machine said on September 16 that it filed an S-4 with the SEC for approval to complete the merger.

It announced its first major staking revenue in October, generating around 1,350 ETH or $5.5 million to advance its treasury. In November, Keys reiterated the firm’s mission to maximize ETH generation per share, adding that the pullback in ETH prices provides “healthier entry levels aligned with long-term value creation.”

As of its January investor update, the firm had still not cleared all regulatory hurdles in order to make the Ether Machine a public entity, though it is expected to be completed by the end of Q1.

4. Bit Digital

Bitcoin miner Bit Digital formed an Ethereum treasury strategy during Q2 2025. Since then it has boosted its stash to 155,434 ETH as of February 28—now valued at around $333 million.

As part of its transition, the firm ended its Bitcoin mining operations and redeployed funds towards ETH accumulation and AI compute via its majority ownership in publicly traded firm WhiteFiber (WYFI).

Much like other digital asset treasuries, Bit Digital’s ETH acquisitions have been underwater since the second largest crypto asset has plunged from its August all-time high of $4,946.

BTBT’s average acquisition cost is $3,045 per ETH based on its latest update, meaning it’s down about $140 million on its purchases at the time of writing.

5. Coinbase

Prominent American crypto exchange Coinbase maintains an investment of around $324 million, or 151,175 ETH based on its latest 10-Q filing. That is more than 35,000 ETH greater than it ended 2024 with, when it held 115,700 ETH based on an end of year 10-K filing.

The firm also holds more than 14,000 Bitcoin as an investment, placing it among the top publicly traded holders of the largest crypto asset, as well.

First hitting the public markets in 2021, shares in Coinbase made a new all-time high in July 2025 as crypto firms continued a streak of success alongside traditional equities. 

6. BTCS Inc.

Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS) holds 70,322 ETH as of its last update, worth around $151 million.

The firm boasts a proactive strategy to acquire more Ethereum, putting its ETH to work on-chain using what is described as a “powerful DeFi/TradFi financial model” to generate value for shareholders. 

In addition to acquiring ETH, the firm also bolstered its treasury with three Ethereum-based Pudgy Penguins NFTs in August.

Differentiating itself from other treasury firms, BTCS is paying shareholders a “Bividend,” paying $0.05 per share in Ethereum to shareholders. An additional bonus of $0.35 per share is available to those who transfer their shares to the firm’s transfer agent and hold them there until January 26, 2026.

7. Forum

Biotech firm 180 Life Sciences rebranded its company to ETHZilla in July 2025, as it shifted focus to a digital assets treasury centered on Ethereum. But it has already shifted gears again since then.

The firm raised $425 million in late July to kickstart its treasury and quickly jumped up the holder rankings. A few weeks later, shares in ETHZilla quickly tripled after it was revealed that billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel and related entities had purchased a 7.5% stake in the company.

But it’s been a journey since then. 

ETHZilla made headlines in October when it sold ETH and bought back around $40 million in shares of ETHZ as a way to benefit shareholders. It also announced it would undergo a 1-10 reverse stock split, and begin to share more frequent updates on its treasury operations to satisfy shareholder feedback.

Most surprisingly, though, in pursuit of providing shareholders value, the firm opted to lean into tokenizing real-world assets, offering tokenized access to profits from leased jet engines. That shift in focus led to a complete rebrand, moving beyond its unique name in February 2026 to go by Forum instead. Around that time it was discovered that Thiel had offloaded his shares in the firm during Q4

Forum, formerly ETHZilla, now holds 61,650 ETH worth about $132 million.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on August 17, 2025 and last updated with new details on March 21, 2026.

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Privy Taps Deframe by Pods to Unlock DeFi Yield Strategies

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The Stripe-owned wallet infrastructure provider has integrated Deframe’s DeFi aggregation API, the latest in a string of yield-focused moves.

Privy, the embedded wallet infrastructure provider acquired by Stripe last year, has integrated Deframe, a DeFi aggregation API built by the team behind Pods Finance, to enable developers to offer yield strategies directly within their applications.

The integration gives apps access to Deframe’s suite of yield strategies, spanning protocols such as Aave, Morpho, Lido, and Compound, across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Solana, and Polygon.

The partnership comes alongside a flurry of yield-focused moves from Privy. The company recently launched an Earn feature that lets developers connect app balances to curated DeFi vaults through API calls, powered by Morpho vault infrastructure with risk strategies from Steakhouse Financial and Gauntlet.

The moves signal Privy’s strategy to position embedded wallets not just as onboarding tools but as revenue-generating infrastructure for app developers. Earlier this month, Sky Frontier Foundation announced that developers building on Privy can now integrate access to sUSDS, Sky’s yield-bearing stablecoin.

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

Radial survey finds 58% of consumers are open to using an AI agent, yet only 6% have done so

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Radial, Inc., a leading 3PL set to become Paxon later this year, today announced the results of two distinct surveys of 1,000 consumers each that explore how consumers perceive, adopt, and trust agentic AI in commerce. The findings reveal a clear adoption gap where nearly six in 10 consumers (58%) say they are open to placing orders through an AI assistant, but only 6% have actually done so. The results show that the future of agentic commerce is promising, but its success will depend on trust, control, and consistent execution.

As AI-driven eCommerce sales are projected to surpass $144 billion by 2029, retailers are racing to integrate intelligent tools across the shopping journey. Yet Radial’s data shows consumers are not ready to hand over full autonomy. Instead, they are signaling that adoption will be gradual and earned based on how reliably brands execute across fulfillment, payments, and post-purchase experiences.

“AI may change how consumers shop, but fulfillment is what makes that promise real,” said Tom Schmitt, CEO of Radial. “Retailers that invest in flexible, scalable fulfillment networks will be best positioned to support AI-driven commerce without compromising reliability.”

AI Adoption Is Conditional but Control Is Non-Negotiable

When asked how much freedom consumers would give an AI agent, 34% say they would allow it to take actions only if they approve each one. Another 23% want AI to make suggestions only, and 21% do not want AI acting on their behalf at all.

This is particularly true when payment is involved. More than half (53%) of consumers require approval before any purchase goes through, and 41% require two-factor authentication for every transaction. The ability to review or cancel purchases without penalty is also essential for 39% of consumers. Roughly one in five consumers (19%) would never trust AI with payment information.

For retailers, this shows agentic commerce will need to function as a governed system where consumers retain control and brands maintain safeguards around sensitive transactions.

Consumers are looking for protection, too. Nearly half (46%) say they would only feel comfortable using AI with strong privacy protections, and 42% expect to have the option to speak with a human representative if issues arise.

Deal-Finding Is the Entry Point

Today, only 5% of consumers begin their shopping journey directly with AI tools, compared to 34% who start with search engines and 32% who do so with marketplaces. However, 47% say they would use AI to find the best price for a product, far outpacing other use cases like choosing a replacement when something is out of stock (12%).

These early applications demonstrate how AI can help consumers find the best prices or in-stock items for something they already know they want, rather than a purchasing proxy. This also shows retailers that AI adoption will initially reward operational readiness. AI agents need reliable brand information around price, availability and delivery to stay relevant as these tools become more embedded in the shopping journey.

Post-Purchase Is AI’s Promising Proving Ground

Consumers showed the strongest openness toward agentic commerce throughout the post-purchase experience. More than half (54%) of consumers are likely to use AI for monitored delivery and problem-solving. Another 36% are cautiously interested in AI assistants that work directly with stores or delivery systems to track orders and resolve issues.

Additionally, when asked what suggestions would be helpful from an AI assistant, 44% noted faster delivery options and 35% said return-friendly items. The results are clear: agentic commerce success is not just about the initial discovery or checkout stages, rather it is about the entire purchase journey, from click to delivery.

As AI agents influence more purchasing decisions, retailers must rethink the infrastructure behind every order journey. Fulfillment orchestration, delivery transparency, integrated payments, fraud protection, and post-purchase resolution will become critical to ensuring AI-driven orders are accurate, trustworthy, and profitable.

Bitcoin Options Flag Traders’ Fear As Iran War Carries On

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Key takeaways:

  • Bitcoin traders are turning cautious as high oil prices and Middle East tensions fuel inflation and stall US interest rate cuts.

  • The $254 million in spot Bitcoin ETF outflows is too small to confirm a bearish flip, yet options markets show heavy hedging.

Bitcoin (BTC) price stagnated near $70,000 during the Friday trading session after failing to reclaim the $75,000 level on Tuesday. The decline marked two days of net outflows from US-listed Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), reversing the trend from the prior seven days. Traders are now wondering if institutional investors are turning bearish, especially as the US stock market showed signs of weakness.

US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs daily net flows, USD million. Source: Farside Investors

The bearish sentiment across global markets is weighing on Bitcoin as the S&P 500 plummeted to its lowest level in six months. Even gold, which typically acts as a hedge, faced a 10% sell-off over three days. As the US and Israel-Iran war triggers a broad move toward risk aversion, Bitcoin derivatives data now reflect increasing fear among traders.

Bitcoin options put-to-call premium volumes at Deribit, USD. Source: Laevitas.ch

Demand for put (sell) Bitcoin options premiums at Deribit was nearly 2.5 times larger than equivalent call (buy) instruments on Friday, indicating increased demand for neutral-to-bearish strategies. The prior surge in the metric occurred on Feb. 27 after Iran rejected negotiations to dismantle its key nuclear facilities and export its enriched uranium.

Traders frustrated by Bitcoin’s 17% lag behind the S&P 500 

To confirm if the increased demand for put options has effectively been used for downside protection, one should assess the delta skew metric. When market makers fear imminent Bitcoin price correction risks, the put options tend to trade at a 6% or higher premium relative to equivalent call instruments. Conversely, periods of bullishness push the indicator below -6%.

Bitcoin 30-day options delta skew (put-call) at Deribit. Source: Laevitas.ch

The Bitcoin options delta skew (put-call) stood at 16% on Friday, meaning professional traders were not comfortable that the $69,000 level will hold. While distant from the extreme panic levels seen in late February, the current conditions reflect the stress caused by the 21% price drop in three months, while gold and the US stock market held relatively steady.

Bitcoin/USD vs. S&P 500 Index & gold/USD. Source: TradingView

Regardless of whether Bitcoin successfully defends the $70,000 level, traders are not pleased with the 17% underperformance relative to the S&P 500 over three months. More importantly, the recent rally to $75,000 on Tuesday was unable to move the needle in Bitcoin options markets, a strong indicator that traders are acting overly cautious. 

Related: Crypto Biz–Institutions aren’t waiting for the bottom

Part of the pessimism can be attributed to the surge in energy prices. WTI oil prices have sustained levels above $94 since March 12, a 50% increase versus the prior month. The disruption of oil and gas production and logistics in the Middle East negatively impacts economic growth expectations and limits the ability of the US Federal Reserve to slash interest rates due to inflationary pressure.

The fuel price surge is expected to cause consumers to pull back on spending, according to a new Oxford Economics analysis. Analysts warned that US manufacturers who rely on imports will also be impacted, causing further price increases and potential “outright shortages of some products,” according to Yahoo Finance.

The mere $254 million net outflows in two days are unlikely to be a sign of institutional investors flipping bearish, but traders are not confident that Bitcoin will hold above the $68,000 level. Traders’ sentiment has been largely driven by worsening macroeconomic conditions and uncertainty caused by the prolonged war, driving increased demand for downside protection using derivatives.