Western Union Launches USDPT

Find out our latest reports, listed below:

• Tokenised Markets on Bitget UEX: How Traders Are Utilising 24/7 Real-World Assets For Real Time Macro Hedging
• Block Scholes x Panoptic: Bridging The Onchain Convexity Gap
• Volatility Report: February 2026

• 2026 – the year of RWA perps?‍

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

‍

Daily Updates:

• BTC has whipsawed between $78K and $81K since the start of the week as geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran intensify, pushing risk assets back into a headline driven environment. 
• The $81K region marks the highest level spot price has traded since late January this year. Spot Bitcoin ETFs also recorded their fifth straight week of inflows. 

• President Trump announced “Project Freedom” on Sunday, claiming that the US would begin guiding some neutral ships trapped in the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.
• On Truth Social he wrote, “The Ship movement is merely meant to free up people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance”. 
• According to the US military, the plan had allowed two American-flagged ships to pass through the strait. 
• The head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, Ebrahim Azizi, however warned that the US’s interference in the Strait would constitute a violation of the ceasefire.

• The brief calm in oil prices after Trump’s post was quickly disrupted after it was reported that Iran had fired a “warning shot” at a US Navy Ship in response to Trump’s new efforts to open the strait. The US responded back by destroying at least six Iranian small boats. 
• At the same time, Iran attacked the United Arab Emirates on Monday for the first time since the ceasefire with the US took effect on April 8. 
• The UAE said its air defense systems engaged with 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones fired from Iran. A tanker owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. was also said to have been fired upon by Iranian drones near the Strait of Hormuz as well as an oil terminal in the port city of Fujairah.
• Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Trump confirmed that Iran had begun its attacks again, but claimed that if they did really target US ships, they would be “blown off the face of the Earth.”

• Brent crude prices rallied more than 5% to over $114 a barrel, and currently trade around $113. 
• Meanwhile, US equities fell from their all-time highs — the S&P 500 closed 0.41% lower on Monday, while the Nasdaq-100 finished the session down 0.21%.
• The renewed tensions had a sizable impact in US treasury markets too. Yields across maturities moved higher, with the 30-year US treasury yield rising above 5% and currently at its highest level since July 2025.

• CME launched futures contracts for Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI), further expanding its regulated crypto derivatives suite beyond BTC and ETH.
• The new listings include both standard and micro contracts, giving institutional and professional traders more flexible exposure to two additional Layer 1 assets through CME’s regulated marketplace.

• Western Union has launched USDPT, a U.S. dollar-denominated payment stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and built on Solana.
• USDPT is designed to serve as an always-on settlement asset within Western Union’s global network, combining blockchain-based settlement with the company’s compliance, risk management and distribution capabilities.
• For Western Union, the stablecoin creates a more efficient settlement layer for partners, agents and future consumer use cases. 
• Planned applications include exchange access, connectivity with licensed digital asset platforms and custodians, treasury and agent settlement, and a consumer-facing spend capability expected to launch in more than 40 countries in 2026.

• Ondo has been selected to join DTCC’s Industry Working Group on tokenization, according to their post on X, placing the firm alongside major traditional finance and digital asset institutions involved in shaping the next phase of U.S. market infrastructure.
• DTCC’s tokenization initiative is aimed at bringing core capital markets processes onchain, with a focus on improving liquidity, transparency and operational efficiency.
• Ondo’s inclusion is notable given its positioning in tokenized stocks, ETFs and U.S. Treasuries, reinforcing the growing role of specialist tokenization platforms in institutional market design.
• DTCC describes its tokenization service as designed to represent real-world assets on blockchain within a controlled and regulated environment.
• Under a three-year SEC no-action authorisation, DTC will support tokenisation of selected highly liquid assets, including Russell 1000 securities, major U.S. equity index ETFs and U.S. Treasuries, on pre-approved blockchains.
• More than 50 firms are expected to participate in DTCC’s Industry Working Group, including BlackRock, Circle, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, Robinhood and Payward

• Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange operated by Dunamu, has announced a partnership with the Optimism Foundation to launch GIWA Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack.
• Optimism is an Ethereum scaling network that uses optimistic rollups (assuming transactions are valid unless challenged) to increase throughput. It uses rollup architecture to batch transactions off-chain and settle them on Ethereum for scalability.
• The chain is expected to run under the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise, meaning Upbit will operate its own sequencer (transaction ordering and block production) while relying on Optimism for redundancy, monitoring, and fallback infrastructure to ensure uptime and security.

• Arbitrum DAO, the governance body of the Arbitrum Layer 2 network, has been served with a court-authorised restraining notice by US judgment creditors, seeking to freeze and potentially seize crypto assets allegedly linked to North Korea, including the $73M in ETH tied to the Kelp DAO exploit.
• The legal action is led by attorneys representing plaintiffs from multiple terrorism-related cases against the DPRK, attempting to enforce hundreds of millions in damages by targeting on-chain funds, despite the attribution of the exploit to North Korean actors remaining unproven.
• Aave has filed an emergency motion to lift the freeze, arguing the ETH is part of an active DeFi recovery effort (DeFi United) and not legally owned by attackers, warning that seizure could disrupt a broader $300M+ industry-led remediation process and set precedent for court intervention in DAO-controlled funds.

• Coinbase has said US lawmakers have reached a compromise on stablecoin yield provisions in the Clarity Act, with Section 404 banning rewards “economically or functionally equivalent” to interest on deposits, a key issue given Coinbase’s revenue exposure to stablecoin distribution via USDC.
• The agreement, led by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, allows “activity-based or transaction-based rewards” tied to “bona fide” usage, with flexibility for rewards to be “calculated by reference to a balance, duration, tenure, or any combination.”
• The framework also introduces disclosure and marketing restrictions (e.g. prohibiting claims that stablecoins are “FDIC-insured” or investment products), mandates rulemaking by US regulators, includes penalties of up to $5M per violation, and requires a future review of impacts on bank deposits and financial stability.

• BlackRock has urged the OCC to remove a proposed 20% cap on tokenised reserve assets under the draft GENIUS Act rules in its letter on Friday, arguing that reserve risk should be assessed by credit quality, duration and liquidity rather than whether an asset is held on a blockchain.
• A restrictive cap could limit the use of products such as BlackRock’s BUIDL as reserve assets for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, potentially slowing the integration of tokenised money market instruments into regulated stablecoin infrastructure.
• BlackRock also asked the OCC to clarify that Treasury ETFs and other funds investing solely in eligible reserve assets can qualify as reserves, while backing a more principles-based approach to diversification and liquidity requirements. 

• The US SEC has delayed approval of over two dozen proposed prediction-market ETFs from issuers including Bitwise, Roundhill, and GraniteShares, requesting additional clarity on fund structure, pricing mechanisms, and investor risk disclosures.
• These ETFs are designed to give retail investors exposure to prediction markets by wrapping event-based contracts  (e.g. elections, recessions, commodity prices) into exchange-traded funds that can be bought and sold like stocks.
• The delay extends beyond the standard 75-day automatic approval window as regulators review how these products handle volatility, settlement outcomes, and potential manipulation risks, amid broader growth in prediction markets and increasing scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.

• Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, has accumulated 5.18M ETH (~4.29% of total supply) after adding 101,745 ETH, as it advances toward its stated goal of acquiring 5% of total ETH supply. Its current total crypto and cash holdings have reached $13.1B.
• Of this, 4.36M ETH (~$10.2B) is staked, representing over 84% of its holdings and generating ~$297M in annualised staking revenue at ~2.9% yield through its MAVAN validator network.
• The firm also holds ~$700M in cash alongside smaller BTC and equity positions and has recently uplisted to the NYSE as it scales its institutional crypto treasury strategy.

• Polygon has launched private stablecoin payments through its wallet in partnership with Hinkal, using zero-knowledge proofs to verify transfers without exposing the sender, receiver, or transaction amount onchain.
• The feature addresses a key barrier to institutional adoption of public blockchain payment rails: confidentiality. 
• While onchain settlement offers speed, lower cost, and 24/7 availability, public visibility of counterparties and payment amounts remains unsuitable for many treasury, payroll, vendor, and internal settlement flows.
• By routing transfers through Hinkal’s shielded pool, Polygon enables cryptographically verified, non-custodial private payments while retaining KYT screening before execution.

This Week’s Calendar:

Charts of the Day: