There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

€91,085.70



2.44%

Ethereum

€2,190.89



8.34%

Tether

€0.87

淪

0.03%

XRP

€1.85



4.97%

Solana

€125.74



9.29%

USDC

€0.87



0.00%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Wall Street helps power crypto to historic highs

Crypto prices surged to start the week, with bitcoin breaking $110,000 — just short of its all-time high — and ether breaking the $2,700 mark, as a wide variety of other tokens also saw gains. 

On Wednesday, better-than-expected inflation data and news around a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China helped BTC maintain historic highs. In fact, as of Tuesday, BTC had been above $100,000 for a record-breaking 30 straight days. 

What’s behind the gains? According to Bloomberg, a major driver of 2025’s rally has been a growing consensus on Wall Street and beyond that crypto has become a major, enduring building block of the global economy. 

“A larger and larger audience of institutional buyers are getting comfortable with the asset and seeing that this has the potential to be a much larger asset class than gold,” as one venture fund leader put it.

Further evidence comes from Coinbase’s latest State of Crypto report, in which a majority of Fortune 500 executives report that their firms are pursuing blockchain initiatives. 

More about Wall Street’s crypto ambitions, Coinbase’s new report, and other forces shaping markets below…

Ethereum rises as Wall Street rallies around stablecoins and DeFi 

After lagging behind BTC for months, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has revved back up in a major way this spring.

As of Monday, ether ETFs had notched $815 million in inflows over the previous 20 days. Then on Wednesday, ETH prices broke $2,800 following news that the SEC is planning to offer “greater flexibility” for onchain activities like staking and DeFi (ETH is still a ways off its 2021 peak near $4,700 though).

The percentage of circulating staked ether (staking is a way of earning rewards for contributing to the network’s security) also just reached a new peak. Around 28% of all circulating ETH — worth around $90 billion — is currently staked. 

A new report from Wall Street broker Bernstein says that ETH is benefiting from an influx of institutional interest driven by the Ethereum network’s core utility. 

“Interesting blockchain use cases such as stablecoins and tokenization are native to Ethereum,” the firm’s analysts noted, adding that Ethereum boasts “maximum market share” in these areas.

• Ether fever… Last week, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager — whose crypto ETFs are a major gateway for institutional money into the crypto economy — bought nearly $100 million in ETH.

Spot bitcoin ETFs are about to hit $1 trillion in total trade volume 

After a blockbuster May — in which crypto ETFs tallied more than $7 billion in new capital, bringing the total to a record-breaking $167 billion, per Morningstar data — spot BTC ETFs are homing in on a couple of other all-time highs.

As of June 9, BTC ETFs had tallied a total trade volume of $995.2 billion, according to data from the Block. That means in the 18 months since the asset class launched last year, nearly a trillion dollars have flowed in or out of the funds. 

In another milestone, BlackRock’s IBIT bitcoin fund just broke the $70 billion mark in assets under management faster than any ETF in history, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. 

• HODLing strong… At the same time that BTC ETFs were surging to new highs in May, gold and equities funds were both losing ground. “The greenback is projected to keep plummeting, bond yields are rising, [and] there’s uncertainty about the equity markets,” Coin Bureau founder Nic Puckrin told Reuters. “But bitcoin seems to be holding strong.”

WHALE STREET

Three key trends driving institutional crypto adoption in 2025

Crypto is having a major moment on Wall Street.

In recent weeks, big finance and tech have signaled their embrace of stablecoins; corporations are increasingly investing in digital assets beyond just bitcoin; and markets are getting ready for a wave of crypto companies to go public.

Here’s what you need to know.

Big banks are falling in love with stablecoins

Stablecoins (digital tokens pegged to the price of another asset, typically a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar) have become the buzziest sector in crypto this year.

Their ability to make global payments cheaper and faster has moved Congress toward passing major stablecoin-focused legislation and pushed the stablecoin market cap to all-time highs of $250 billion. 

The world’s largest banks and corporations are taking note. JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and other Wall Street giants are reportedly exploring issuing a joint stablecoin, and French bank Societe Generale just launched one of its own.

Top tech firms are, too 

It’s not just banks — many of the biggest names in tech are also exploring stablecoins. Apple is reportedly in talks with crypto firms about integrating stablecoins into Apple Pay and its broader payments infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, Airbnb is exploring stablecoins as a way to reduce the fees it pays to card networks like Visa and Mastercard. Uber’s CEO recently confirmed to Bloomberg that it’s also exploring stablecoin integrations. And Google, through its cloud division, is already accepting stablecoin payments from customers in the form of PYUSD, PayPal’s stablecoin. 

The impetus for moving to adopt stablecoins is obvious, said Rich Widmann, head of web3 strategy at Google Cloud: “It’s pretty clear that this is probably one of the biggest upgrades to payments since the SWIFT network.”

Circle’s blockbuster IPO could spark a trend 

Last week, USDC stablecoin issuer Circle joined the New York Stock Exchange with a hugely successful IPO. Day-one shares in the company closed 168% higher than its offering price of $31 — the largest surge since 2021 for an IPO raising more than $100 million.

The momentum wasn’t limited to the first day either, with Circle’s shares reaching a high of $138 this week, a nearly 350% return from its IPO price.

And Circle isn’t the only crypto-related firm that’s recently headed to public markets. Galaxy Digital, a digital assets firm, also went public last month, as did eToro, a trading app. 

These moves could be the precursor for a wave of public market debuts for crypto companies, according to a recent report from ByBit. Possible candidates include Consensys, which makes the MetaMask wallet; Ledger, which makes crypto hardware wallets; Fireblocks, an institutional crypto custody firm; and Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company. 

“Circle's successful IPO has set a benchmark for the cryptocurrency sector, paving the way for a series of potential public offerings in 2025,” the report said. 

Dozens of firms have started purchasing crypto 

Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) bold move to spend more than $40 billion on acquiring bitcoin for its corporate treasury has buoyed its stock price and added around $20 billion in unrealized gains.

In the years since Michael Saylor’s firm began buying bitcoin in 2020, dozens of public companies — many of which have no connection to crypto — have begun adding cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets, with numerous announcements coming in recent weeks. 

“We haven’t seen this type of capital activity in any crypto-related strategy within this short amount of time potentially in the history of our industry,” said Elliot Chun, a partner at advisory firm Architect Partners.

Metaplanet, a Japanese investment firm, is vying to become the second-largest corporate holder after Strategy and just announced plans to buy $5.4 billion worth of bitcoin by 2027. Last week, K Wave Media, a Korean pop music media firm, said it would buy more than $500 million of bitcoin, sending its stock soaring more than 130%.

And it’s not just bitcoin that companies are buying. Last month, SharpLink Gaming, a betting company based in Minnesota, announced plans to buy nearly $1.5 billion worth of ETH, leading its stock to briefly rise by more than 2,000%.

XRP and SOL are also attracting interest, with sustainable energy firm VivoPower reporting plans to buy $100 million of the former, and Upexi, which makes consumer products including mushroom-based supplements, announcing plans to buy $100 million of the latter.

The bottom line… 

With 1 in 5 Fortune 500 executives identifying onchain initiatives as key to their company’s strategy moving forward, the utility of crypto and blockchain infrastructure is becoming increasingly clear. The missing piece to the puzzle, according to Coinbase’s most recent State of Crypto survey? Regulatory certainty from governments, especially in the U.S.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

This week, Coinbase released its latest State of Crypto report, which dives into a number of rapidly growing trends across the crypto economy. Here’s a look at some of the key numbers.

161 million

Total number of stablecoin holders, more than the population of the 10 largest cities in the world combined. The total stablecoin supply is around $250 billion, representing a 54% increase from the previous year.

24,606%

Growth in real-world asset tokenization from $85 million in 2020 to more than $21 billion in April 2025. Private credit accounts for 61% of total tokenized assets, followed by treasuries (30%), commodities (7%), and institutional funds (2%). 

9 in 10

Number of Fortune 500 executives who agree that clear regulation in the U.S. on crypto, blockchain, or web3/onchain is needed to support innovation.

47%

Percent of Fortune 500 executives who say that their company’s investment in onchain tech has increased. The top 3 onchain use cases are payments and settlements, supply chain management, and blockchain infrastructure.

34%

Percent of small and medium businesses that currently use crypto, double the amount from 2024. Meanwhile, 84% of SMBs say they are interested in using crypto in their businesses, up from 65% a year ago.

TOKEN TRIVIA

Which cryptocurrency uses the Lightning Network?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer