Autor Cointelegraph by Christina Comben

Visa is testing whether privacy-enabled blockchain networks can support institutional stablecoin settlement without exposing sensitive transaction data, in a proof of concept with stablecoin infrastructure company Brale and the Canton Network, a permissioned ledger backed by major Wall Street firms.The project, announced Thursday, uses SBC, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, to simulate institutional payment flows on Canton as Visa evaluates whether SBC could become another stablecoin option in its settlement program.The initiative extends Visa’s earlier experiments using stablecoins for settlement on public blockchains, which began in 2021 with USDC settlement on Ethereum but now target banks and market infrastructure providers that want onchain efficiency without broadcasting counterparties, positions or flows on a public ledger.The push comes as policymakers and analysts anticipate a broader shift in how payment stablecoins are used. S&P Global Ratings said in a Thursday report that global stablecoin issuance has already surpassed $300 billion across currencies, with most demand still tied to crypto trading. Related: Solayer launches Visa-compatible card for USDC paymentsUS payment stablecoins that comply with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act are poised to expand into merchant remittances and certain types of commercial payments once rules are finalized, the report said, with one of the most promising near-term use cases being cross-border payments. However, such flows currently represent only a minimal, if growing, share of global international payment volumes.Canton network at center of institutional privacy push Canton, developed by Digital Asset, connects permissioned blockchain applications operated by institutions including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.Visa and Brale explore private stablecoin settlement. Source: BusinesswireUnlike public chains, Canton is designed so that only transaction participants and authorized regulators can see specific deal data, while still allowing atomic settlement across tokenized assets, cash-like instruments and other financial contracts.The proof of concept will assess how Canton’s privacy architecture can support faster, more programmable settlement while allowing financial institutions and payment companies to retain strict control over the visibility of sensitive transaction and settlement data, Visa and Brale said in the release.For banks, the stakes go beyond technology experimentation. Over time, S&P Global said stablecoins could threaten a portion of banks’ payments income and shift funding from insured retail deposits toward more concentrated wholesale balances. Banks that issue stablecoins or tokenized deposits themselves may also capture new fee and funding opportunities, driving large financial institutions to test privacy-preserving settlement networks that can support GENIUS-style payment stablecoins and tokenized deposits, according to the report.Cointelegraph reached out to Visa, Brale and Digital Asset, but had not received a response by publication.Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now

Forward Industries transferred roughly $31.9 million worth of Solana tokens to Coinbase Prime Thursday, according to blockchain data, marking its first onchain activity in a month.Data from Arkham Intelligence shows a wallet tied to the Nasdaq-listed company moved 455,784 SOL to the institutional trading platform. The transfer comes as the firm sits on steep unrealized losses tied to its large-scale bet on the token.The deposit to Coinbase Prime does not necessarily confirm an immediate sale but is commonly interpreted as a precursor to trading activity, particularly for institutional holders seeking liquidity or risk reduction. Shares of Forward Industries were down about 6% in the pre-market on Friday following the transfer, trading at $3.97, down from Thursday’s close of $4.22, according to Yahoo Finance data.Forward Industries moves 455,784 SOL to Coinbase Prime. Source: ArkhamThe move comes as publicly listed companies that adopted crypto treasury strategies face mounting pressure from the sector’s prolonged downturn, with several firms sitting on significant unrealized losses and investors increasingly focused on balance sheet risk.Forward Industries began accumulating Solana in September 2025 as part of a treasury strategy that positioned it as the largest corporate holder of the asset, according to a December shareholder update.Related: Solana open interest drops 30% as altcoins slump: Is $68 SOL next?The company said it had purchased about 6.83 million SOL for approximately $1.59 billion at an average cost of $232.08 per token.The SOL price has since fallen by roughly 72%, according to CoinGecko data, trading at around $64.63 at the time of writing. That would value the company’s original holdings at about $441 million, implying an unrealized loss of roughly $1.15 billion.Solana price has slumped 72% since September 2025. Source: CoingeckoForward Industries remains the largest publicly listed Solana holder with more than 7 million SOL, according to the most recent data available.Corporate crypto treasuries face mounting pressureThe move comes amid broader signs of strain across corporate crypto treasury strategies. On Thursday, publicly listed digital asset firm FG Nexus reportedly sold an additional $17.8 million in Ether, adding to a series of disposals across the sector.Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, is also facing mounting pressure after Bitcoin’s recent decline pushed the unrealized loss on its holdings to about $11.2 billion. The company disclosed this week that it sold 32 BTC for roughly $2.5 million, its first Bitcoin sale since December 2022, when it sold 704 BTC as part of a tax-loss harvesting transaction before repurchasing more Bitcoin days later.Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs

Coinbase has launched pre-intial public offering (IPO) markets, starting with SpaceX, offering users outside the United States exposure to private companies before they list publicly via a perpetual futures contract tied to the company’s estimated pre-listing price.The product is a USDC-settled perpetual futures contract that tracks SpaceX’s pre-IPO valuation. It allows 24/7 trading with no expiry or rollover, with profits and losses settled in USDC, according to a company blog post Thursday. Coinbase said the positions can be opened and closed at any time, similar to existing perpetual futures contracts on the platform. Upon a future IPO, positions will automatically transition into a post-IPO perpetual futures contract referencing the public listing.The offering is not available to US persons at launch and is initially rolling out to “eligible users in supported jurisdictions outside the United States,” reflecting restrictions on offering private market securities exposure in the country.Coinbase said the product is intended to expand access to private market exposure, which has traditionally been limited to venture capital firms and institutional investors, with SpaceX serving as the initial listing due to strong global demand for exposure to Elon Musk’s space and satellite company.Pre-IPO perpetual futures launch on Coinbase. Source CoinbaseCointelegraph reached out to Coinbase for comment, but did not receive a response by publication.Crypto exchanges race to offer pre-IPO exposure The launch comes amid intensifying competition among crypto exchanges to bring private market exposure into tokenized or synthetic form. Kraken’s parent company, Payward, announced a similar initiative Wednesday, offering tokenized access to pre-IPO companies. Related: Coinbase invests in ProShares ETF tailored for stablecoin reserve assetsBinance also launched derivative products linked to high-profile private firms, including SpaceX, in May, while in April, Bitget launched IPO Prime, a platform for pre-IPO investment products, starting with a SpaceX-linked offering.The broader push coincides with accelerating interest in tokenized real-world assets. Research from Bernstein released May 26 estimated the RWA market has grown to $51 billion, expanding 42% this year as investors seek fractional exposure to traditionally illiquid private assets.A separate Bitget report, published May 26, found tokenized stocks still make up a low-single-digit share of the RWA market, with most activity clustered in a few big-tech names such as Tesla, Alphabet and Microsoft trading on offshore platforms.SpaceX remains one of the most closely watched private companies globally, with valuations in recent private market and institutional estimates reaching as high as $1.75 trillion, depending on methodology and secondary market pricing. Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

A wallet tagged by Arkham to the publicly listed Ethereum treasury company FG Nexus moved another 10,000 Ether on Wednesday, extending a series of sales that began after the company built a large position in 2025.The latest transfer equates to roughly $17.8 million at current prices and comes after earlier disposals that saw the Nasdaq-listed firm unwind more than 21,000 ETH from its treasury for roughly $55 million.FG Nexus accumulated 50,770 ETH between August and September 2025 at an average price of $3,860 per coin, building a position worth about $196 million at the time.With Ether trading near $1,765 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data, the cryptocurrency is down roughly 54% from FG Nexus’s average purchase price of $3,860, implying a loss of more than $100 million in value on its original investment.FG Nexus’s share price was down 13.40% pre-market Thursday, trading at $7.11, down from $8.21 at Wednesday’s close, according to Yahoo Finance data.Wallet linked to FG Nexus moves 10k ETH. Source ArkhamThe company disclosed holdings of roughly 40,093 ETH in December 2025 and has yet to publicly comment on its Ether sales since those disclosures, with recent transfers identified by onchain data providers not addressed in subsequent company statements. Cointelegraph reached out to FG Nexus for comment but had not received a response by publication.Institutional Ether holders continue accumulatingFG Nexus’ recent selling contrasts with the approach taken by other corporate Ether holders, who have continued to add to their positions despite Ethereum’s price decline.Related: Ethereum drops to 14-week lows: Can ETH price hold $1.8K support?Listed miner BitMine, the largest publicly traded holder of Ether with more than 5.4 million ETH, has been adding to its position, including a recent purchase of approximately $52 million worth of Ether. The company also unveiled plans Wednesday to issue dividend-paying preferred shares, expanding the financing tools available to support its Ethereum treasury strategy.Some analysts likewise remain upbeat on Ether’s long-term outlook despite its recent underperformance.Standard Chartered reaffirmed its long-term $40,000 Ether price target last week, saying that Ethereum’s network fundamentals are strengthening, and pointing to growing onchain activity and continued dominance in decentralized finance. The bank compared Ethereum’s current position to Amazon during its early growth phase, arguing that the asset’s market performance has yet to fully reflect those underlying trends.Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs

A wallet tagged by Arkham to the publicly listed Ethereum treasury company FG Nexus moved another 10,000 Ether on Wednesday, extending a series of sales that began after the company built a large position in 2025.The latest transfer equates to roughly $17.8 million at current prices and comes after earlier disposals that saw the Nasdaq-listed firm unwind more than 21,000 ETH from its treasury for roughly $55 million.FG Nexus accumulated 50,770 ETH between August and September 2025 at an average price of $3,860 per coin, building a position worth about $196 million at the time.With Ether trading near $1,765 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data, the cryptocurrency is down roughly 54% from FG Nexus’s average purchase price of $3,860, implying a loss of more than $100 million in value on its original investment.FG Nexus’s share price was down 13.40% pre-market Thursday, trading at $7.11, down from $8.21 at Wednesday’s close, according to Yahoo Finance data.Wallet linked to FG Nexus moves 10k ETH. Source ArkhamThe company disclosed holdings of roughly 40,093 ETH in December 2025 and has yet to publicly comment on its Ether sales since those disclosures, with recent transfers identified by onchain data providers not addressed in subsequent company statements. Cointelegraph reached out to FG Nexus for comment but had not received a response by publication.Institutional Ether holders continue accumulatingFG Nexus’ recent selling contrasts with the approach taken by other corporate Ether holders, who have continued to add to their positions despite Ethereum’s price decline.Related: Ethereum drops to 14-week lows: Can ETH price hold $1.8K support?Listed miner BitMine, the largest publicly traded holder of Ether with more than 5.4 million ETH, has been adding to its position, including a recent purchase of approximately $52 million worth of Ether. The company also unveiled plans Wednesday to issue dividend-paying preferred shares, expanding the financing tools available to support its Ethereum treasury strategy.Some analysts likewise remain upbeat on Ether’s long-term outlook despite its recent underperformance.Standard Chartered reaffirmed its long-term $40,000 Ether price target last week, saying that Ethereum’s network fundamentals are strengthening, and pointing to growing onchain activity and continued dominance in decentralized finance. The bank compared Ethereum’s current position to Amazon during its early growth phase, arguing that the asset’s market performance has yet to fully reflect those underlying trends.Market Moves: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs