Western Union Debuts USDPT Stablecoin on Solana

Bernstein analysts noted Strategy's resilience in weathering Bitcoin's market fluctuations, with the firm adding 86,000 Bitcoin this year. They predict Bitcoin's price to reach $150,000 by year-end, despite a recent drop.

Tether, the top stablecoin issuer, will finally undergo its first full independent financial statement audit by a Big Four accounting firm. The company has held $192 billion in assets to back its USDT stablecoin, mainly in U.S. Treasuries, but has never been audited by a major firm.

The New York Stock Exchange is collaborating with Securitize to develop standards for tokens representing real-world assets like stocks and bonds. Securitize will be the first digital transfer agent for NYSE's Digital Trading Platform, facilitating round-the-clock trading of blockchain-native securities.

The Solana Foundation introduced the Solana Developer Platform to facilitate financial institutions in building products on its blockchain network. The platform, structured around digital asset issuance, payment orchestration, and trading modules, has attracted early users like Mastercard, Western Union, and Worldpay for various purposes.

ParaFi, a digital asset manager, secured $125 million for a new venture fund, adding to the $325 million raised for existing crypto investments. Founder Ben Forman plans to focus on startups in stablecoins, tokenization, and onchain financial products for institutions.

Altcoins like Bittensor's TAO, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), and Render (RENDER) surged following President Trump's announcement of a pause on strikes against Iran. The crypto market saw significant movements as total market cap exceeded $2.5 trillion.

Invesco, a $2.2 trillion asset manager, will manage Superstate's $900 million USTB tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, entering the $12 billion tokenized U.S. Treasuries market. The fund will be renamed Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund post-transition in Q2 2026.

Revolut's 2025 earnings hit record highs, with profits before tax up 57% to $2.3 billion and revenue climbing 46% to $6 billion. The company saw growth in various services, leading to a fifth consecutive year of net profit at $1.7 billion.

MoonPay has introduced the Open Wallet Standard (OWS) to facilitate AI agents in managing funds and executing transactions across various blockchains. OWS addresses key challenges in AI-crypto integration by collaborating with industry players like PayPal, Ethereum Foundation, and Ripple.

Bitcoin's price remains stable amidst the Middle East war, with analysts attributing its resilience to three key factors. Despite warnings of potential weakness, the cryptocurrency has shown a 7% gain since the conflict began, outperforming other assets like equities and precious metals.