Crypto Currents: Senate passes bill for stablecoin regulatory framework

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies get increasing attention from investors, Wall Street and its traditional banks continue to adjust to the shift. Catch up on this week’s top stories highlighting the intersection of these old guard and new school areas of finance with this recap compiled by The Fly.

SENATE PASSES BILL FOR STABLECOIN REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: The U.S. Senate passed a bill to cryptocurrency empire, was passed with a 68-30 vote, with two GOP members voting no on the legislation, the author said.

Following the news, President Donald Trump stated in a post to Truth Social: “The Senate just passed an incredible Bill that is going to make America the UNDISPUTED Leader in Digital Assets – Nobody will do it better, it is pure GENIUS! Digital Assets are the future, and our Nation is going to own it. We are talking about MASSIVE Investment, and Big Innovation. The House will hopefully move LIGHTNING FAST, and pass a ‘clean’ GENIUS Act. Get it to my desk, ASAP – NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS. This is American Brilliance at its best, and we are going to show the World how to WIN with Digital Assets like never before!”

Additionally on Monday, Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) announced the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of the initial registration statement on Form S-1 for the Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF. The ETF will hold Bitcoin and Ether directly, with 75% of its assets invested in Bitcoin and 25% in Ether, and offer its shares to investors, aiming to reflect the price performance of Bitcoin and Ether. Crypto.com will act as the ETF’s exclusive Bitcoin and Ether custodian and prime execution agent, as well as staking and liquidity provider. The launch of the Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF is pending effectiveness of the Registration Statement as well as approval of a Form 19b-4 filing with the SEC. Upon launch, the Shares will be listed on NYSE Arca. Yorkville America Digital is acting as the sponsor of the ETF.

COINBASE INTRODUCES COINBASE PAYMENTS: Coinbase (COIN) announced Wednesday it is introducing Coinbase Payments, a stablecoin payments stack designed for commerce platforms. “Offer instant, 24/7 USDC payments to your merchants – globally, securely, and without blockchain complexity. Built on Base and already live with Shopify, it’s the fastest way for payment service providers, marketplaces, and commerce infra providers to bring stablecoin payments to market,” the company said in a blog post. “More than half of the Fortune 500 is building onchain, and a third of small businesses already use crypto. And yet, despite growing demand, stablecoin payments remain out of reach for most platforms – held back by fragmented tooling, technical overhead, and a lack of production-ready infrastructure. Coinbase Payments changes that.” The company notes that Coinbase Payments is the first full-stack stablecoin payment solution built for commerce platforms at scale. The high-performance infrastructure is now live with Shopify (SHOP), where Coinbase is bringing USDC payments to millions of merchants with no additional setup required. Now, that same infrastructure is available to any platform that serves merchants.

Coinbase is also seeking approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (HOOD) and Charles Schwab (SCHW).

Additionally, JPMorgan (JPM) will launch a pilot for a token called JPMD that represents dollar deposits at the bank in a transaction expected to take place within days, reported Bloomberg’s Anna Irrera and Olga Kharif on Tuesday. Naveen Mallela, global co-head of the bank’s blockchain division Kinexys by JPMorgan, said in an interview that JPMorgan will move a fixed amount worth of JPMD from the bank’s digital wallet to Coinbase Global. The token issuance and transfer will happen on Coinbase-affiliated public blockchain Base, and will be denominated in dollars.

On Monday, Rosenblatt said it came away from Coinbase’s annual summit optimistic about the industry and the company’s growth potential. With significant changes in the political landscape, the “benefits will be far greater than expected” and the current rally in crypto prices “is just getting started,” the analyst said. For Coinbase, the firm thinks reduced regulatory scrutiny will help accelerate the company’s product expansion beyond trading. Coinbase at its summit “did not disappoint with several new announcements including new initiatives in payments and lending,” contended Rosenblatt. The firm, however, reduced near-term earnings estimates with 2Q25 trading volumes remaining “subdued.” Given the “strong macro backdrop and regulatory tailwinds,” it sees “this lull as a buying opportunity.” Rosenblatt kept a Buy rating on Coinbase with a $300 price target.

STRATEGY BUYS MORE BITCOIN: Strategy (MSTR) disclosed Monday that it acquired 10,100 bitcoins during the June 9 to June 15 period for an average price of $104,080. The company now owns 592,100 bitcoins at an average price of $70,666. The bitcoin purchases were made using proceeds from Strategy’s preferred share offering.

RIOT PRICE TARGET RAISE: On Tuesday, Needham raised the firm’s price target on Riot Platforms (RIOT) to $15 from $12 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The company’s Corsicana site is one of the most attractive high-performance computing sites in the firm’s universe, the analyst said. In its recent checks with neo-cloud operators, the firm has learned that more than half of demand is for inference workloads and it is growing, adding that it expects advanced discussions with prospective tenants in the second half of 2025.

ANALYST INITIATES BITCOIN MINERS: On Wednesday, Northland initiated coverage of Canaan (CAN) with a Market Perform rating and $1.50 price target. Canaan delivered the world’s first batch of Bitcoin mining machines that incorporated ASIC technology in 2013, but competitor BITMAIN now controls about 70%-80% of the market, the analyst said. The firm, which noted that Canaan also has self-mining operations, believes the company is “strategically positioned to become a premier provider” as companies seek supply chain diversification, the analyst said.

Northland also initiated coverage of BitFuFu (FUFU) with a Market Perform rating and $5.50 price target. BitFuFu is a global bitcoin mining company offering end-to-end solutions, including cloud mining, which makes mining accessible to both institutional and retail customers by removing barriers of high initial costs and technical complexity, the analyst said. BitFuFu received early investment from Bitmain and remains its strategic partner in cloud mining, the analyst noted.

OTHER CRYPTO NEWS:

• Tron to go public after U.S. pauses probe into billionaire founder, FT reported
• JPMorgan says (V), MasterCard (MA)
• Robinhood price target raised to $80 from $65 at Mizuho
• Seaport starts (CRCL) with a Buy
• Hive Digital (HIVE) surpasses 11 EH/s Bitcoin hashrate milestone

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase, Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), Strategy, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose roughly 1% this week to $106,049 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.