News linked to both this project and an event.
Japan's SBI Shinsei Bank will launch a pilot program on June 10, allowing customers to convert a portion of their deposit interest into BTC, ETH, or XRP. The initiative uses "interest exchange" as an entry point to introduce crypto assets into traditional deposit products, enabling users to gain cryptocurrency exposure without direct purchase. Future expansion will depend on customer participation and the regulatory environment. (The Block)
Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale Research, stated that the market experienced a new wave of volatility following Strategy's disclosure on June 1st of selling 32 Bitcoin. Although the sale is negligible compared to its holdings of approximately 840,000 Bitcoin (worth about $55 billion), this rare reduction move still impacted market sentiment.Pandl pointed out that the more noteworthy development is the performance of Strategy’s Variable Rate Preferred Stock STRC (Stretch). The product has a design target price of around $100 and currently offers a dividend yield of 11.5%. When the stock price falls below $100, it indicates that investors are demanding a higher rate of return, which may force the company to increase dividend levels. This would increase future cash flow pressure and potentially compel it to sell more Bitcoin for fundraising, further weighing on BTC prices. Strategy's leveraged Bitcoin reserve model is facing challenges. At current STRC and MSTR share price levels, the company's ability to continue large-scale Bitcoin accumulation may be constrained.However, Pandl noted that in the long term, the migration of Bitcoin holdings from highly leveraged digital asset reserve companies to more diversified corporate balance sheets will help enhance market resilience and improve Bitcoin's long-term value support. He expects Bitcoin to resume its upward trend in the coming months, but its near-term performance may lag behind crypto asset sectors that benefit more directly from regulatory clarity.
Odaily News Executives from PayPal and Google Cloud stated that in the future, commerce driven by AI Agents will operate on crypto payment rails, as AI Agents cannot use traditional bank accounts like humans.Richard Widmann, Head of Web3 Strategy at Google Cloud, stated that AI Agents are unable to open bank accounts from both a technical and regulatory standpoint, while cryptocurrencies offer an "excellent machine-readable payment interface." He revealed that Google has launched the open-source Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2) and donated it to the FIDO Foundation, with over 120 partners, including PayPal, already joining.May Zabaneh, Senior Vice President of Crypto at PayPal, indicated that the company views AI Agents as the next generation of commerce entry point following offline, online, and mobile payments. She noted that PYUSD, as PayPal's stablecoin, provides a naturally programmable payment layer for AI-native payments and global transactions.A PayPal survey shows that 95% of merchant websites currently see traffic from AI Agents, but only about 20% of merchants have machine-readable product catalogs. Zabaneh believes that merchants need to adapt to the AI Agent era as quickly as possible, or they will miss out on the next wave of commercial infrastructure upgrades.Additionally, the two also discussed the security and responsibility issues of AI Agents. Widmann stated that multi-party custody will become an important solution for Agent fund management. AI Agents should not have full control over private keys but should only hold a portion of the key fragments to reduce financial risk. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, the cryptocurrency venture capital sector is undergoing a structural shift. Investors now broadly require startups to demonstrate real users and revenue before committing capital—marking the end of the era when early-stage fundraising was easy. Token-based exit strategies have become significantly less reliable; low-liquidity, high-valuation token launches continue to underperform the broader market, prompting investors to revert to traditional equity-oriented thinking. Meanwhile, the rise of the AI sector has siphoned off substantial LP capital and entrepreneurial talent, further intensifying fundraising challenges for crypto VCs. Nonetheless, several investors note that reduced competition, more rational valuations, and an improving regulatory environment point to 2026–2027 as the strongest investment years since 2018. Future capital will focus on areas with clear business models—including stablecoins, payments, tokenization, real-world assets (RWAs), and financial infrastructure—while the boundaries between crypto VCs and traditional VCs accelerate toward convergence.
The Kansas City Federal Reserve’s latest analysis indicates that stablecoins currently serve primarily as tools for cryptocurrency trading and liquidity provision within the financial ecosystem, rather than as mainstream payment instruments. According to the report, approximately 49% of stablecoin supply supports trading liquidity on centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and broader crypto infrastructure; 29% is used for wallet-to-wallet transfers or internal fund operations; and 21% remains idle—with less than 1% actually deployed for real-world payments. The report notes that, as natively crypto-designed instruments, stablecoins face constraints in cross-chain interoperability and integration with traditional financial systems, hindering their large-scale adoption for payments. Although payment processors such as Mastercard and Visa announced support for related technologies in 2026, stablecoin-based payment use cases remain in their infancy. Future development hinges on resolving critical challenges including interoperability, regulatory compliance, and identity verification.