Bitget Has Launched Stock+

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In Today's Note

• BTC traded sideways over the weekend between $62K and $64K, while Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs continued to see outflows and perp funding stayed around neutral.
• US-Iran talks remained fragile, with conflicting reports over whether negotiations had stalled, while Brent traded around $79 and the renewed Lebanon-Israel ceasefire continued to hold.
• Schwab is reportedly working on S&P 500-linked binary options, while Japan’s National Business Pension Fund prepared a crypto allocation, Toss Bank partnered with Solana on stablecoin remittances, Bitget launched Stock+, Taiko halted block production after an exploit, and the Bank of England published draft rules for systemic stablecoins.

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

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Macro & Markets

• Bitcoin spent the weekend trading sideways between $62K and $64K as Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs continued their outflow streak on Friday, with $90.7M exiting Bitcoin ETFs. 
• US equities were closed for the Juneteenth holiday last Friday, though S&P 500 futures are down slightly today, as US-Iran peace talks over the weekend began with a rough start. 
• In options markets, at-the-money implied volatility equally traded sideways around 35% for short-dated BTC options, while put options still trade with a near 10 vol point premium over call options. 
• Additionally, funding rates over the past week for both BTC and ETH have remained flat around neutral levels, with no clear directional sentiment in perp markets. 

• Two Iranian media outlets reported that negotiators from Tehran had left the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock where talks were being held, halting conversations with the US after President Trump threatened fresh strikes as Israel and Hezbollah continued fighting. Bloomberg News however reported that both sides remained in conversation throughout. 
• As the negotiations got under way over the weekend, Trump said in a social media post that if Iran doesn’t “immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
• He also warned Iran that the US might start collecting tolls for ships passing through the Strait if no deal can be reached. 
• Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump even warned that the Iranian leaders wouldn’t “even make it back” to Iran, should they close the Hormuz Strait. 

• Nonetheless, mediators from Qatar and Pakistan hailed "encouraging progress”, and the interim deal signed last week by leaders from both sides outlining a 60-day period for negotiators to settle on all terms, was still in place. 
• Brent crude oil prices currently trade around $79 a barrel, after an earlier gain of as much as 2.2%. Brent prices have dropped significantly from their peak close to $120 a barrel, relative to the pre-conflict $70 level. 
• Additionally, so far, the renewed ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel negotiated on Saturday is currently holding.

DeFi / Web3 / Altcoins / Crypto3

• Charles Schwab is reportedly working with Cboe Global Markets to launch S&P 500-linked binary options contracts in the coming months, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• The contracts would allow customers to take yes-or-no positions on where the S&P 500 closes, paying a fixed cash settlement if the outcome is correct and nothing if it is not.
• Schwab also plans to use Cboe’s “plus zone” feature, which would offer partial payouts when traders are close to the target level.

• Japan’s National Business Pension Fund is reportedly preparing to allocate around 1% of its assets to cryptocurrencies during fiscal year 2026, according to a report by Nikkei.
• The fund, which serves roughly 1,200 small and medium-sized companies, is expected to invest through a passive fund holding multiple cryptocurrencies managed by a major hedge fund. 
• The move is aimed at diversifying currency risk, with the fund reducing its yen exposure and adding allocations to developed-market currencies, emerging-market currencies, gold and crypto.
• The fund’s investment executive, Aiyu Kiguchi, said the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency could weaken, making further dollar exposure less attractive. Bitcoin’s low correlation with the dollar index was cited as one reason crypto may serve as a hedge against currency depreciation.
• The decision comes as Japan moves toward broader regulatory integration of digital assets, including plans for bitcoin futures and potential spot bitcoin ETF approval later this decade.

• South Korea’s internet-only Toss Bank has signed an MoU with the Solana Foundation to test blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
• The partnership will begin with a proof-of-concept for stablecoin-powered overseas remittances on Solana, before expanding into tests with international partners and further checks around AML and KYC processes. 
• Toss Bank said the initiative is intended to make global payments and settlement faster and more cost-effective for its 15 million customers.
• The move builds on Toss Bank’s existing remittance business, which currently supports 30 countries and seven major currencies, and comes as South Korea continues to develop its regulatory framework for stablecoins and digital assets. 

• Bitget has launched Stock+, a new product under its Stocks 2.0 suite that allows eligible users to buy full and fractional U.S. stocks using digital assets converted into USDC, according to their press release.
• The feature gives users economic exposure to the underlying shares, including eligibility for dividends and stock split adjustments, with trades executed through U.S.-licensed brokers and routed to Nasdaq, the NYSE and compliant market makers. 
• Bitget also supports inbound transfers of existing U.S. stock holdings from participating brokers, though outbound transfers are not yet available.
• The launch builds on Bitget’s early-June Stocks 2.0 overhaul and advances its “universal exchange” strategy, bringing crypto, tokenised assets and traditional equities into a single platform. 
• However, the rollout remains geographically restricted, excluding users in major markets including the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

• Ethereum Layer 2 network Taiko halted block production on June 22 after confirming an exploit affecting its chain state verification and bridge message-proof validation, stating that on X.
• The team urged users to withdraw funds from all bridges deployed on Taiko and asked centralised exchanges to suspend deposits of its native token while the incident is investigated. 
• Taiko later said the exploit had been contained, with withdrawals through the L1 Bridge and ERC20Vault fully stopped.
• According to Taiko, the attacker used forged message proofs that were accepted on Ethereum L1 without legitimate corresponding events on the Taiko source chain. 
• This allowed fraudulent withdrawals from the bridge and token vault. Estimated losses were around $1.7M before the pause.

• The Bank of England published a policy statement and draft rules for systemic stablecoin issuers, setting out the framework for UK-issued stablecoins to operate as regulated digital money from 2027.
• The draft regime raises the maximum share of backing assets that issuers can hold in short-term UK government debt from 60% to 70%, introduces an initial £40B issuance guardrail for each systemic stablecoin, and is expected to be finalized by the end of 2026 after feedback closes on Sept. 22.

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This Week's Calendar

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Charts of the Day

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