Crypto Currents: U.S. lawmakers discuss bitcoin reserve with industry leaders

Washington is buzzing with talks about a strategic bitcoin reserve for the U.S., bringing together lawmakers and executives from major firms like Strategy and Coinbase. Meanwhile, corporate adoption continues to accelerate with American Express venturing into NFTs and PayPal expanding its crypto payment services. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us 2 PM daily for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

LAWMAKERS DISCUSS STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE: U.S. lawmakers are meeting with 18 crypto and traditional finance executives to advance the BITCOIN Act, which proposes the U.S. government create a strategic reserve by acquiring 1M bitcoin (BTC-USD) over five years. According to Cointelegraph, attendees include executives from Strategy (MSTR), MARA Holdings (MARA), and BitMine (BMNR). The roundtable will focus on budget-neutral ways to fund the purchases, such as using tariff revenue or reevaluating Treasury gold certificates.

AMERICAN EXPRESS LAUNCHES NFTS, BASE EYES TOKEN: American Express (AXP) has launched NFT-based digital passport stamps for customers, which will be stored on the base blockchain. Following this, base creator Jesse Pollak announced the network, which was incubated by Coinbase (COIN), is “beginning to explore” launching its own native token, a reversal from the company’s previous stance. In an X post, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed the exploration but noted there are “no definitive plans”.

PAYPAL CRYPTO TO PEER-TO-PEER PAYMENTS EXPANSION: Payments firm PayPal (PYPL) announced it is expanding its peer-to-peer service to include cryptocurrency transfers, allowing U.S. users to send bitcoin, ether (ETH-USD), and its own PYUSD stablecoin directly across accounts. The new “PayPal links” feature enables users to create personalized links for sending or requesting money, which can be shared via text, chat, or email.

SOLANA CORPORATE TREASURIES SURPASS $4B: Corporate treasuries for solana (SOL-USD) have surpassed $4B, with public companies now holding nearly 3% of the token’s circulating supply, according to data from Arkham Intel. Companies leading the accumulation include Forward Industries (FORD) and Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT). Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead called solana the “fastest, cheapest, most-performing” blockchain and revealed his firm holds a $1.1B position in the token. Meanwhile, in a new blog post, Coinbase pushed back against claims that stablecoins threaten the U.S. banking system, calling the idea a “myth”.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $115,169.32, while ether (ETH-USD) was trading at $4,445.67, according to price data from CoinDesk.