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0x Opens Swap API to AI Agents Paying $0.01 Per Request in USDC

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0x Opens Swap API to AI Agents Paying $0.01 Per Request in USDC

AI agents can now access 0x Protocol’s Swap API by paying $0.01 per request in USDC directly from their own wallets, with no API key required, via the HTTP 402 and x402 standard built with Alchemy AgentPay.

AI agents can now access 0x Protocol’s Swap API by paying $0.01 per request in USDC from their own wallets, with no API key or account setup required. The integration, built with Alchemy AgentPay, runs on the HTTP 402 standard and extends the protocol’s DeFi liquidity aggregation to autonomous software agents for the first time.

The mechanism follows the x402 protocol flow: an agent sends an HTTP request to the 0x endpoint, the server returns a 402 Payment Required response, the agent signs a USDC payment on-chain, and a proxy verifies the transaction before releasing swap data. Payment is accepted via x402 on Base and Solana, or via the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), per the 0x thread on X Tuesday.

Why Agents Need This

Traditional API access requires an account, a credit card, a key, and a billing cycle. None of those map cleanly to an autonomous process that may need to execute a single swap query before spinning down. The pay-per-request model lets an agent call the endpoint when it needs it and pay only for what it consumes, at $0.01 per call.

0x’s Swap API aggregates liquidity across major DEX venues, making it one of the more practical data sources for any agent that needs onchain pricing or routing. Opening it to API-keyless access removes the setup step that would otherwise require human intervention before an agent can run.

Growing Stack

The launch adds 0x to a stack of AI-agent payment infrastructure that has grown quickly since early June. AWS plugged Coinbase’s x402 into CloudFront on June 19, letting any site behind Amazon’s CDN charge agents per request in USDC. Coinbase for Agents launched standalone agent accounts on June 11. Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) and Ripple’s XRPL AI Starter Kit both launched June 10.

The x402 network has processed 75.41 million transactions totaling $24.24 million in volume over the past 30 days, per x402.org. 0x has not disclosed how many agent requests its Swap API has received since the feature launched, and the announcement includes no volume projections.

Prevailing Currency in Digital Assets: Infrastructure

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Prevailing Currency in Digital Assets: Infrastructure

This trend is becoming even more relevant as real-world assets enter the digital landscape. Stablecoins have already demonstrated the power of blockchain-based representations of traditional value, becoming the most successful digital asset use case to date. Tokenized deposits, bonds, funds, and other real-world assets are poised to follow, expanding the range of opportunities available to businesses and individuals worldwide.

For the end user, however, the underlying asset may become increasingly irrelevant. Most people are unlikely to care about the blockchain protocol, token standard, or settlement mechanism powering a transaction. What matters is accessibility, speed, security, and trust. Users want to access global opportunities using their local resources, through partners they know and platforms they can rely on.

In this environment, the long-term competitive advantage belongs to those who build and operate the infrastructure connecting participants, assets, and markets. Coins may evolve, protocols may change, and new forms of digital value will continue to emerge. But the institutions that enable trust, connectivity, and seamless access will remain at the center of the ecosystem.

The prevailing currency in digital assets may change over time. Infrastructure, however, is what endures.

Principled Perspectives

Bitcoin’s liquidation cascade peaked before the bottom

– By Alen Pavlović, Portfolio Manager, Liquibit Capital

Using CoinDesk’s liquidation feed, the forced selling flushed early and high. By the time Bitcoin bottomed on 5 June, the cascade was already over.

BTC declines to $60,000 area as investors turn to stocks for investment gains

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BTC declines to $60,000 area as investors turn to stocks for investment gains

Bitcoin BTC$60,542.37 dropped to the $60,000 area on Wednesday for the second time this month, continuing its poor price action in the face of risk market rallies elsewhere.

Also continuing to lose ground on Wednesday were gold and oil, each falling below key levels — gold $4,000 per ounce and oil $70 per barrel.

Read more: Gold, silver and bitcoin tumble as ‘debasement’ trade unwinds

The declines in crypto, precious metals, and oil came as tech stocks rebounded following Tuesday’s modest one-day slump, with the AI trade continuing to draw investor interest and dollars.

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix on Wednesday filed to raise nearly $30 billion in a U.S. share offering, in what would be the overseas company capital raise since Saudi Aramco’s mammoth $26 billion sale in 2019.

The Nasdaq at midday Wednesday was up 0.8% against bitcoin’s 3.2% slump.

Bitcoin has lost the plot

Billionaire hedge fund manager Philippe Laffont succinctly summed up investor sentiment Tuesday, telling CNBC he has become “a little bit more worried” about bitcoin’s future, arguing that investors now have a wider range of opportunities to choose from than in previous years.

CFTC Sues Kentucky to Defend Its Exclusive Jurisdiction Over Prediction Markets

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CFTC Sues Kentucky to Defend Its Exclusive Jurisdiction Over Prediction Markets

The CFTC sued Kentucky on Tuesday to stop the state from using its own laws and a new transaction fee to push federally registered prediction markets out, widening a multi-state campaign over exclusive federal jurisdiction.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Kentucky on Tuesday to stop the state from using its own laws to shut down federally registered prediction markets. The suit widens a campaign the agency has now pressed against a string of states.

The CFTC filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in federal court Tuesday afternoon, the agency said. The action follows Kentucky’s move to bring civil enforcement cases in state court against CFTC-regulated designated contract markets, the venues where event contracts trade, seeking large monetary penalties from them. Kentucky also created a new special transaction fee on those CFTC-regulated markets to push them to leave the state, according to the CFTC. The agency argues that effort obstructs Congress’s decision to federally preempt state law.

Selig’s Confirmation

CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig confirmed the filing on his official X account, quote-posting the agency’s announcement. “Today’s lawsuit against Kentucky is yet another example of the Commission protecting its federal authority,” he wrote.

In the press release, Selig framed the dispute around access rather than enforcement. “Kentucky is the latest state attempting to shut down federally-regulated event contracts,” he said. “Prediction markets provide Kentuckians with valuable information about the likelihood of future events and offer risk management products relied on by Kentucky businesses and individuals.”

The Preemption Argument

The CFTC’s case rests on the Commodity Exchange Act, which the agency says hands it exclusive authority over event contracts and preempts state laws that try to regulate designated contract markets. Kentucky’s civil suits target those registrants directly, and the new transaction fee raises the cost of operating in the state. The complaint asks a federal court to declare that authority exclusive and to bar Kentucky from enforcing its measures against CFTC registrants.

The agency has leaned on the same statutory reading throughout the standoff. It says the Commodity Exchange Act sets a single national rulebook for designated contract markets, and that letting individual states apply their own gaming penalties would fracture that regime. Kentucky’s two-track approach, the litigation plus the transaction fee, gives the agency a fresh target combining both pressure points in one defendant.

Kalshi at the Center

The fight has played out across platforms like Kalshi, the CFTC-registered exchange whose sports and event contracts have drawn the sharpest state pushback. States have argued the contracts amount to unlicensed gambling under their own gaming statutes, often pointing to event markets tied to sports outcomes. The CFTC counters that Congress placed event contracts under one federal regime and that state regulators have no authority to override it.

Kalshi has continued to expand even as the disputes multiply, confirming a $1 billion raise at a $22 billion valuation and filing to add perpetual futures on 12 altcoins after the CFTC cleared its crypto products.

A Widening Campaign

Kentucky joins a roster of states the agency has taken to court over the same question. The CFTC sued New Mexico on June 12, which became the eighth state to face federal litigation after Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The Defiant covered the Wisconsin filing when it expanded the arc in late April.

Selig’s predecessor has weighed in on the other side. Former CFTC and SEC Chair Gary Gensler filed an amicus brief at the Sixth Circuit this month arguing that sports prediction markets fall outside CFTC swap rules, a position that cuts against the agency’s own. A tribal coalition has also filed amicus briefs seeking to keep prediction markets off Native land.

The agency said it has also opened proceedings against Minnesota, Illinois and Rhode Island, and submitted amicus briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth and Ninth Circuits and to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The Kentucky complaint extends a fight whose outcome will decide whether prediction markets run under one federal framework or a patchwork of state gaming rules.

Bitcoin ‘Compressed’ at $62,000 as a Four-Year Adoption Trend Stays Intact

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Bitcoin ‘Compressed’ at $62,000 as a Four-Year Adoption Trend Stays Intact

Bitcoin (BTC) is “compressed” at low levels but its classic cycles remain intact, say new research.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin is acting similar to prior cycles as it circles a key four-year trend line.
  • Analysis says that BTC price action is currently “compressed” as it trades below a $76,400 target.
  • A new estimate put the bear market as just over 70% complete.

Analysis on $62,000 BTC price: Bitcoin “not broken”

In an X post on Wednesday, analyst David Eng said that BTC price action still “runs on two clocks.”

“400-day clock, $BTC looks cyclical. ~4-year clock, the cycle noise gets filtered out and the adoption structure appears,” he summarized.

Marking time for Eng are the 400-day simple moving average (SMA), as well as its four-year equivalent. The former is notable for its ability to act as support throughout Bitcoin bull markets, seeing no daily candle closes below it this cycle or last.

BTC/USD one-day chart with 400SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

On four-year time frames, meanwhile, a cleaner uptrend emerges, with price fluctuating above and below the trend line depending on its position in the cycle.

“The point is that Bitcoin keeps stretching away from this adoption structure and then reverting back toward it,” Eng summarized.

Currently, the four-year trend line suggests a fair price of around $76,400, making BTC/USD undervalued by around 20%. A chart uploaded by Eng also shows Bitcoin’s Power Law price, this now well into uncharted territory at nearly $135,000.

“$BTC is not broken,” he concluded. 

“It is compressed below its adoption structure.”

Bitcoin bear market losses could resume in August

As Cointelegraph reported, historical comparisons suggest that Bitcoin’s current bear market will continue for some months yet.

Related: US dollar strength hits highest since May 2025: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

The latest estimates from trader and analyst Rekt Capital put the current downtrend at around 71% complete.

His analysis continues to focus on the fate of the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $63,900.

“At this stage, if June Monthly Closes just like this at $62k then that would confirm the breakdown from the 50-Month EMA. So it July turns into a green month, then that could see price turn the 50 EMA into new resistance,” he told X followers. 

“Then August would cancel out July and send Bitcoin into downside continuation.”

BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-month EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Trump White House Negotiating CLARITY Act Ethics Deal With Senate Democrats

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Trump White House Negotiating CLARITY Act Ethics Deal With Senate Democrats

A Trump White House official is negotiating an ethics compromise on the CLARITY Act with Senate Democrats, the last major sticking point before a floor vote, as Senator Cynthia Lummis says the US is finally close to getting digital asset legislation right.

A Trump White House official is now directly negotiating an ethics compromise on the CLARITY Act with Senate Democrats, the last major sticking point standing between the crypto market structure bill and a Senate floor vote.

The development was reported by journalist Pete Rizzo on Tuesday, citing Politico, as the bipartisan group works to resolve a dispute over how the bill would restrict senior government officials, including President Donald Trump, from holding crypto interests. The talks have run through the White House Crypto Council, whose executive director Patrick Witt has been part of the three-party negotiations alongside Senate Republicans and Democrats.

The Ethics Gate

The ethics provision is the toughest of the remaining negotiations on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Senate Democrats including Ruben Gallego and Kirsten Gillibrand have conducted close talks with Republican counterparts and the White House over language limiting officials’ crypto ties, as CoinDesk reported on Tuesday.

The dispute centers on Trump’s own holdings. The president and his family have generated an estimated $2.3 billion from crypto ventures since he returned to office, according to Reuters as cited by Crypto in America. Those interests span a stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto ties of Truth Social, and his namesake memecoin, which complicates any clean path to compliance if the restrictions were to reach the president.

Witt has previously said his office wanted the limits to cover a wide swath of government officials rather than target the president directly, a framing Democrats have resisted.

A Walked-Back Deal

Earlier talks had produced a tentative agreement before the Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill in May, but key pieces were later pulled back. A provision that would have let state attorneys general sue the Department of Justice over a failure to enforce the ethics rules was dropped by Republicans and the White House, Crypto in America reported on June 10.

Republicans countered by offering to limit enforcement authority to the Attorney General and floated impeachment as an alternative remedy, but Democrats rejected the offers as a reversal of the earlier deal. Senators Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks have signaled their support hinges on strong ethics guardrails addressing Trump’s crypto business.

The fresh round of White House negotiations marks a return to the table after that impasse, with the administration now directly engaged on a compromise rather than walking away.

Lummis Sees Progress

Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the Republican negotiators, said the US is finally close to getting digital asset legislation right, casting the moment as the most promising yet for the bill she has championed. She has kept up a steady stream of posts urging her colleagues to move.

“Software developers should not need an army of lawyers to know if their code is legal,” Lummis wrote on X over the weekend. “The Clarity Act ends that absurdity.”

The Senate Banking Committee advanced an amended version of the bill in a bipartisan vote in May, after the House passed its own version by a wide bipartisan margin in July 2025. The Senate placed the measure on its legislative calendar on June 1, making it eligible for full floor consideration.

The Floor Math

Ethics is one of two top hurdles, alongside law enforcement concerns over the bill’s developer-liability shield. Crypto lobbyists are pushing for a July floor vote, leaving a narrow window before the Senate’s August recess that many view as the unofficial deadline.

The Defiant has tracked the bill’s path through the chamber, where seven Democratic votes have become the gate to clearing a 60-vote threshold. Lummis has also been pressing for a floor vote before the recess as the House lines up a July field hearing.

Analysts have warned that the Senate likely needs to pass the bill before August for it to become law this year, with the odds narrowing sharply if lawmakers miss that deadline ahead of the midterm elections.

Strategy’s MSTR Stock Flashes Dot-Com-Era Setup That Preceded 99% Plunge

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Strategy’s MSTR Stock Flashes Dot-Com-Era Setup That Preceded 99% Plunge

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) is testing a technical setup that last appeared before the stock’s 99% collapse during the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s.

Key takeaways:

  • MSTR is testing a monthly head-and-shoulders setup similar to the one that preceded its dot-com-era collapse.
  • Strategy’s shrinking cash reserve and rising dividend obligations are increasing dilution risk for MSTR common shareholders.

MSTR bearish reversal pattern points to 80% downside risk

As of late June, MSTR’s monthly chart was painting a potential head-and-shoulders (H&S) pattern.

An H&S pattern develops when the price forms three peaks, with the middle peak, called the “head,” being steeper than the other two, which are called “shoulders.” The neckline is the support level connecting the major pullbacks between those peaks.

The pattern typically resolves when the price breaks below the neckline and, in a perfect scenario, falls by as much as the maximum distance between the head and the neckline.

MSTR monthly performance chart. Source: TradingView

MSTR has formed a near-perfect H&S pattern since March 2024 and risks a breakdown below the neckline support at $100–$105.

A decisive move below it would confirm the bearish setup. It could open the door to a deeper, multi-year correction toward the measured target of around $20, down approximately 80% from current levels.

The structure looks similar to the head-and-shoulders top MSTR formed during the dot-com bubble era. Back then, the stock broke below a comparable neckline setup before collapsing by more than 99% from its peak in two years.

MSTR monthly performance chart. Source: TradingView

Strategy cash squeeze raises dilution risk for MSTR shareholders

Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, is facing fresh dilution risk as the company’s cash reserve shrinks and its preferred-stock dividend burden grows.

As of June, Strategy’s US dollar cash reserve had fallen 38% since the start of 2026, while its yearly dividend obligations had nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion, according to CryptoQuant analyst Julio Moreno.

Strategy cash reserve and dividend coverage. Source: CryptoQuant

The company uses cash to pay dividends on its preferred stocks, primarily Stretch (STRC).

But Moreno said Strategy’s preferred-dividend coverage has dropped to about 14 months from more than seven years, meaning it now has enough cash to cover just over one year of STRC dividend payments.

That pressure has shown up in STRC’s market price. STRC fell to a record low of $82.50 last week and has since stayed mostly between $82 and $89, well below its $100 par value.

STRC price and yield chart. Source: STRC.LIVE

The decline has pushed STRC’s effective yield above 13%, compared with its stated dividend rate of about 11.5%, showing investors are demanding a higher return to hold it.

“At current dividend obligations of $1.2 billion per year, restoring 24 months of coverage would require a cash reserve of approximately $2.8 billion, roughly twice what Strategy holds today,” Moreno said, adding:

“A higher cash reserve is the most direct signal the market needs to regain confidence in STRC.”

Strategy holds 847,363 BTC, acquired at an average price of about $75,650 per coin, higher than today’s BTC price of around $62,600. Selling Bitcoin during a downturn could lock in losses and weaken its long-running accumulation narrative.

Instead, Strategy has raised STRC’s dividend rate and issued more MSTR common shares to raise cash. For instance, the company sold 2.71 million MSTR common shares for about $335.5 million in June, while using only $34.9 million of the proceeds to buy 520 BTC.

That keeps Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings largely intact, but it increases dilution risk for existing MSTR shareholders.

Related: Bitcoin price is down over 40% since STRC launched: Is Strategy ‘fine’?

If STRC remains below $100, Strategy may need to keep issuing common shares, slow Bitcoin purchases, or rebuild cash reserves. Each option could weigh on MSTR as the stock tests a bearish technical breakdown.

Nearly 100 Catholic Leaders Oppose CLARITY Act Over Trafficking Safeguard Provisions

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Nearly 100 Catholic Leaders Oppose CLARITY Act Over Trafficking Safeguard Provisions

Close to 100 Catholic bishops and church leaders have sent a letter to Senate leadership opposing the CLARITY Act, arguing that a provision shielding non-custodial developers from money-transmitter rules would weaken federal safeguards against human trafficking and other financial crimes.

Close to 100 Catholic bishops and church leaders have sent a letter to Senate leadership opposing the CLARITY Act, arguing that one of its core provisions would weaken federal safeguards against human trafficking and other financial crimes ahead of a Senate floor vote.

The letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, was sent Tuesday by the Alliance to End Human Trafficking (AEHT), an umbrella organization backed by Catholic religious congregations. Punchbowl News first reported the letter, which The Block separately obtained. Signatories include leaders from the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia, Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes.

Section 604 Dispute

The group’s objection centers on Section 604 of the CLARITY Act, which codifies the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). That provision would establish that non-custodial blockchain software developers are not money transmitters and bear no liability for crimes committed by users of their platforms. The Catholic-affiliated coalition contends the language would introduce regulatory gaps exploitable by traffickers, organized crime networks, and sanctions evaders.

“The Catholic Church has long taught that economic systems and markets must ultimately serve the human person, especially the poor, vulnerable, and those at greatest risk of exploitation,” the letter states, as reported by The Block. The letter warned the provision “could create broad carveouts and regulatory ambiguities that may make it more difficult to responsibly monitor illicit financial activity tied to trafficking, organized crime, child exploitation, sanctions evasion, and other forms of abuse.”

The AEHT also called on Congress to weigh Section 604 against parallel legislative work, writing that “policymakers should avoid creating unintended loopholes that could undermine” anti-trafficking efforts underway in other legislation, including the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act.

Industry Pushback

Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone pushed back on Tuesday. “Let’s be very clear about what Section 604 does,” Carbone said in a post on X. “Section 604 says NON-CUSTODIAL developers are not money transmitters. Those who are building tools are different than those running banks.”

The Digital Chamber separately confirmed its staff were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday meeting with senators, including Lummis, to advocate for the bill. “Today, our team and members are on Capitol Hill, meeting with legislators and advocating for the Clarity Act to bring a clear roadmap to digital asset market structure,” the organization posted on X.

The BRCA provision has been a sustained flashpoint in CLARITY Act negotiations. Critics see it as a potential shield for illicit activity; backers argue it is essential to prevent non-custodial developers, who cannot control how users interact with their software, from facing the same regulatory burden as banks and payment processors.

Widening Opposition Coalition

The AEHT letter adds a religious-institutional voice to an opposition bloc that already includes law enforcement and civil society groups. Former national security officials have pressed Senate leadership to pass the bill, while gaming industry groups, tribal organizations, and unions have separately pushed senators to strip sports prediction-market provisions. Banks have also raised concerns about the bill’s stablecoin framework.

On the other side, more than 1,200 tech companies and over 200 crypto firms have publicly urged Senate passage.

The CLARITY Act sits on the Senate floor calendar, eligible for a vote whenever leadership schedules one. The bill needs at least seven Democratic votes to clear the 60-vote cloture threshold. The August recess has emerged as a hard deadline; failure to clear cloture before then would push negotiations into the fall, with November midterms complicating the vote math further. Senator Lummis has pressed for a Senate floor vote before the recess, and the House has set a CLARITY Act field hearing for July.

Prediction markets on Polymarket assign 42% probability that President Trump signs the CLARITY Act before the end of 2026, per crypto.news.

Bitcoin clings to $62,500 as bears tighten grip on crypto market

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Bitcoin clings to $62,500 as bears tighten grip on crypto market

The crypto market remained sluggish and weak on Wednesday as bitcoin BTC$62,807.19 and ether (ETH) fell less than 0.4% since midnight UTC and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) lost 0.9%, with 18 of its constituents declining.

The lack of a meaningful bounce will be the largest concern, especially as U.S. equity futures began to recover from Tuesday’s tech selloff.

A portion of the altcoin market outperformed its peers, with jupiter (JUP) and monero (XMR) posting gains of between 2% and 4% to suggest investor appetite is still alive despite bearish market conditions.

Bitcoin now needs to avoid slipping back below the psychological level of support at $60,000, which would trigger a return to a trading range not seen since late 2024 with $52,000 emerging as a key level to the downside.

Derivatives positioning

  • Trading has slowed in the derivatives market, with volume down 27% to $141 billion int the past 24 hours, while open interest has increased by 2% to $106 billion. Liquidations tallied $158 million, the lowest in two weeks.
  • BTC futures open interest (OI) is holding steady at around 730K BTC for the eighth straight day, signaling consolidation at current levels.
  • ETH futures are showing renewed action. OI rose to 14.3 million ETH, the most in two weeks and up from a recent low of 13.74 million.
  • The increase occurred as the spot price fell from roughly $1,780 to $1,650 over the past two days, a combination that typically indicates traders shorting into the rally. While funding rates hold slightly positive, showing some demand for bull exposure, 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) is negative, a sign that bears are leading price action through market orders rather than passive limit orders.
  • SOL futures are busier than ever, with OI at a lifetime high of 77.68 million tokens. But both funding rates and 24-hour OI-adjusted CVD are negative, meaning the action is being driven by fresh shorts, or bearish bets, on the token.
  • In contrast, ZEC’s market is cooling fast, with OI retreating to 2 million tokens from near 2.55 million tokens last month.
  • Broadly speaking, bears appear to be leading price action in most of the top 25 tokens, as is evident from negative OI-adjusted CVDs for the second straight day.
  • Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) has cooled to 43% from nearly 48% on Tuesday. Ether’s volatility index displays a similar pattern.
  • On Deribit, the one-week skew widened to 10.9 vol points in favor of puts from roughly 7 points a day ago, a clear sign of intensifying downside concerns. The one-month skew also expanded.
  • Block flows on Paradigm featured a straddle strategy involving call and put options at the $62,000 strike, both expiring July 3. A straddle buyer bets on elevated volatility.

Token talk

  • While monero and jupiter performed well as Wednesday dawned, the same cannot be said for the likes of ethena (ENA), pump (PUMP) and stellar (XLM), all of which tumbled between 2.2% and 3.5% since midnight UTC.
  • Ethena has now lost more than 90% of its value since touching a record high of $0.87 last September. The yield-generating DeFi platform is suffering from a strategy that depends on bullish market conditions, including positive funding rates.
  • Similar drawdowns have been seen across veteran tokens such as LTC$42.19 and ADA$0.1483, which failed to reach their respective 2021 heights in the recent bull market, effectively trading in a macro downtrend since then.
  • The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) continued to set new ground on Wednesday and is now challenging its May 2025 high. A strengthening dollar is typically seen as a negative for risk assets, including altcoins, because it suggests investors feel safer in cash.

Congress Passes Fed CBDC Ban Through 2030, Sends Bill to Trump

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Congress Passes Fed CBDC Ban Through 2030, Sends Bill to Trump

Both chambers of Congress have passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until December 31, 2030. The House cleared the bill 358-32 on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 vote, sending it to President Trump for signature.

Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030, with the bill heading to President Trump for signature after the House cleared it Tuesday.

The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with a large bipartisan majority on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 passage Monday. The bill’s CBDC prohibition bars the Federal Reserve or any Federal Reserve bank from issuing, creating, or facilitating a central bank digital currency, effective through December 31, 2030. “Today, Congress delivered a major win for families working toward the American Dream,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said in a statement Tuesday.

Housing Act Vehicle

The CBDC ban traveled inside a broader housing affordability package. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act targets corporate landlord concentration in single-family housing, streamlines development permitting, and updates HUD programs. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill co-led the bill alongside Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Senate Banking Chairman Scott, and Senate Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren. The House passed its amended version 396-13 in May before the Senate incorporated the changes into a final reconciled text. The deal to unify the two chambers’ versions landed last week, ending months of cross-chamber delays. Hill called the process proof that “Washington still works.”

The CBDC language was added to the housing bill to secure House Republican support. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who has led anti-CBDC legislation in the House for years, has consistently argued that a Fed-issued digital currency would undermine Americans’ financial privacy and hand government undue control over transactions. The Senate’s 85-5 margin showed the ban also commanded substantial Democratic backing. That broad coalition is now both chambers on record: the first statutory prohibition of a Fed-issued retail digital dollar in US history.

Stablecoin Runway

The prohibition settles one dimension of the US digital-payments landscape for the next four years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the signing of the GENIUS Act marked “a seminal moment for digital assets and dollar supremacy” when Trump signed it into law in 2025. Read together, the stablecoin authorization and the CBDC ban define Washington’s digital-dollar posture: private dollar tokens, regulated under the GENIUS Act, are the channel the administration is backing. The Fed is off the field.

Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT together hold roughly 84% of a stablecoin market above $308 billion in capitalization, according to CoinGecko data. Banks, payment networks, and fintechs integrating stablecoin settlement rails face no Fed-issued digital-dollar entrant through the end of 2030. For institutional payments desks assessing vendor or settlement-rail decisions over a multi-year horizon, the statutory ban provides a planning anchor on the competitive landscape. The Clarity Act, pressing toward a Senate floor vote ahead of the August recess, addresses broader digital-asset market structure in a parallel track.

2030 Sunset

The ban expires at year-end 2030 rather than running permanently. Some House Republicans in the Freedom Caucus pushed for a permanent prohibition; the four-year sunset was the compromise that secured final bicameral agreement. A future Congress and administration could revisit the question after 2030, though the 85-5 Senate margin represents a broad bipartisan coalition that would require significant political realignment to reverse.

The bill does not restrict commercial banks or private entities from building their own digital-dollar products. It applies only to the Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve banks. Trump is expected to sign the legislation; Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House backed the housing bill throughout the bicameral negotiation.

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