GM!
Today’s top news:
Crypto majors gring higher as U.S. lays out path to end war; BTC +1% at $71.4k TAO leads all top movers, jumps 15%; Intel co-authors whitepaper with subnet team Circle stock drops 20% over new yield language in Clarity Act Tether announces first ever audit by Big 4 firm CFTC unveils new task force focused on crypto, AI and prediction markets Circle Has Its Worst Day Ever as the Clarity Act Turns ComplicatedMany attributed the stock’s decline to a new Clarity Act draft which introduced language threatening to ban stablecoin yield “directly or indirectly,” including anything “economically or functionally equivalent to interest.”
Coinbase, which shares USDC reserve income with Circle, dropped 10%.
The draft Clarity Act tasks the SEC, CFTC, and Treasury with jointly defining permissible rewards within one year. One industry leader who reviewed the text called it “a departure” from prior White House discussions, while another called it “the best possible result.” So reviews are mixed ahead of Bank reps reviewing today.
The Tether audit news landed the same day (see next story). If it comes back clean, Tether closes the credibility gap with USDC at exactly the moment USDC’s yield model is under threat. Two-front attack in a single session for Circle.
Key Details
Circle (CRCL) closed at $101, down 20%; still up ~28% year-to-date Coinbase (COIN) fell 10% to $181; stablecoin revenue was ~20% of Q3 2025 total The draft bans passive yield but preserves activity-based rewards tied to user behaviorAfter more than a decade of promises, Tether announced Tuesday it has signed with a Big Four accounting firm for its first full independent audit of USDT reserves. The firm’s name was not disclosed.
Tether claims $192 billion in assets back USDT, held mostly in U.S. Treasuries, but has relied on attestations from Italian firm BDO rather than a full audit since its 2014 founding.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law last summer, requires foreign stablecoin issuers to undergo rigorous reserve audits; and now Tether has signaled intent to comply.
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Tether’s $192B in USDT reserves have never undergone a full independent audit USDT’s U.S. offshoot USAT, launched in January, was already audited by Deloitte last month A clean audit would meaningfully advance Tether’s path to GENIUS Act complianceSelig framed it as the agency “future-proofing” regulation and establishing “clear rules of the road” for innovators rather than leaving builders in legal gray zones.
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Task force covers crypto, AI, and prediction markets simultaneously CFTC recently published event contract compliance guidance and invited public comment on new prediction market rulemaking Comes as Democrat-led legislation pushes to ban sports betting on prediction market platformsAround 96% of wallets made under $500 in total profits. The data covers all wallets active on the platform during the month, not just small retail participants.
The numbers land as Pump.fun continues to process enormous volume; the platform has generated hundreds of millions in fees since launch. Yet the PUMP token has fallen over 75% from its $8B peak.
But with a distribution where nearly all profits flow to a tiny fraction of participants, perhaps traders fear the memecoin game is approaching its final innings.
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96% of Pump.fun wallets made under $500 in March Over 50% posted a net loss for the month PUMP is down 9% on the month at a $1.8B FDV, down over 75% from peakThe analysts pointed to Strategy’s STRC preferred share as key evidence. The 11.5% dividend-paying product has allowed Saylor to keep buying Bitcoin aggressively through a 20% BTC drawdown without diluting common shareholders.
MSTR shares are trading around $136 (down 58% from their six-month high) but Bernstein maintained an Outperform rating, calling the company’s $2.25B cash reserve “a fortress” and dismissing fears of a forced BTC liquidation as “unwarranted.”
Key Details
Bernstein reiterates $150K BTC price target and $450 MSTR target Strategy is on pace for its second-largest quarterly BTC addition despite the price environment. STRC preferred shares enabled $1.5B+ in BTC purchases this month without common share dilution
