Bitcoin has jumped over 5% to surpass $80,000 as crypto markets rally with renewed strength, driven by ongoing U.S. regulatory developments despite Senate delays. Solana and Hyperliquid surge about 10% among major cryptocurrencies, with Hyperliquid hitting a record above $90 and enabling manual borrowing against HYPE and BTC. The advance comes as U.S. regulators push ahead with crypto rulemaking even after the Clarity Act stalls in the Senate, reinforcing expectations that policy support is still developing. JPMorgan analysts note that elevated short interest in BlackRock's IBIT ETF reflects caution on bitcoin, while declining U.S. yields and outperforming altcoins signal market resilience despite regulatory setbacks.
According to reports from the European Blockchain Convention, BlackRock has outlined strict requirements for stablecoins to function as regulated settlement assets. Nikhil Sharma, BlackRock's head of digital assets, emphasized that stablecoins must remain interchangeable with bank deposits and central-bank money to preserve common value, recourse and regulated settlement. The framework requires stablecoins to provide recognizable claims and recourse across banks, with banking systems accepting stablecoins and converting them into deposit liabilities without creating value uncertainty. As recent analysis explains, a stablecoin is designed to act as a dollar payment instrument, while a fund share represents an investment with net asset value and fees, though both may trade around $1 and ultimately involve Treasury bills.
The SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption and related CFTC relief outline how U.S. regulators are moving ahead of Congress to expand pathways for tokenized securities and crypto derivatives. Earlier Friday, the CFTC files its crypto asset rulemaking to the White House for review, following the SEC's release of its innovation exemption designed to allow onchain trading of tokenized stocks and expand digital market activity in U.S. capital markets. A House panel also votes earlier this week to move forward with the American Reserve Modernization Act, which would direct the Treasury Department to maintain a secure Bitcoin storage facility. Pantera Capital founder Dan Morehead tells CNBC that the industry does not need Congress because the SEC and CFTC are enacting measures that would have been included in Clarity anyway.
As reported by the European Blockchain Convention, Sharma positioned central banks at the final settlement layer where obligations between regulated financial institutions can be settled in central-bank money. This approach addresses the need for a consistent settlement mechanism across different forms of digital cash. Philipp Müller from the Swiss National Bank supported this model, stating that commercial banks could issue stablecoins if they choose to do so, while the central bank provides safe payment methods suited to their requirements, potentially through wholesale CBDC or fiat money. Recent analysis highlights that central banks at the final settlement layer provides a clear distinction from intermediary settlement systems, ensuring that obligations are settled in the most secure and regulated manner possible.
As reported by the European Blockchain Convention, Sharma emphasized that tokenized markets still depend on settlement cash despite blockchain-based trading. The infrastructure development requires bank acceptance before interoperability between institutions and final settlement layers. Lorenzo Valente noted that crypto had primarily been a retail market during its first decade due to institutional gaps in scalable tools, privacy, and compliance controls, but the market has now become large enough to attract more institutional capital as these gaps begin to narrow. Recent analysis suggests that more finance teams are likely to hold both products for different jobs: payment stablecoins for movement and tokenized funds for idle balances, with the growth of tokenized collateral and settlement systems making this combination plausible for institutional adoption.
