Happy Friday, everyone! You probably saw the appeals court ruling that Trump’s tariffs can remain for now. Bitcoin dropped to $104,250 by 2 pm ET, down 6.7% from a week ago. 

Casey gives us an economic data rundown. But, in taking a break from macro, Ben shares the top lines out of yesterday’s Stablecon event in Manhattan. Here we go:

Soundbites from Stablecon

With Circle’s IPO in progress and the wrap of yesterday’s inaugural Stablecon event in NYC, it’s a great time to talk about stablecoins.

If you haven’t heard of them, the living-under-a-rock quip is probably warranted. I bet that’s a peaceful life, though, so in some ways I envy you. 

But a misconception from those in the know?

“To say that stablecoins are simply a new form of payment or a new digital currency would be like saying that the internet is a better version of the fax machine,” said Spencer Spinnell, an Americas VP at Circle.

Sitting next to Spinnell was Catherine Gu, Visa’s head of institutional client solutions. She was blunt: “Whether you’re a bank or an asset manager or a financial institution of any sort, I think everyone needs a stablecoin strategy in 2025. That’s kind of imperative.”

You might recall Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan’s comments in February about the company entering the stablecoin business upon more regulatory clarity. We then saw the WSJ report that several large commercial banks were considering issuing a joint stablecoin. 

While the profits of stablecoin giant Tether (~$1 billion in Q1) are juicy to those considering an entrance, M0 CEO Luca Prosperi said TradFi players might want to focus on the distribution layer.  

Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan said the key is solving for end-to-end utility while abstracting away the complexity of multiple stablecoins and networks. Moving in and out of fiat will be part of that (as seen in the payment giant’s partnership with MoonPay).

Not just a payment rail, industry watchers argue, stablecoins are rewiring backend financial infrastructure. They’re the foundational layer for tokenizing anything.

Financial firms leaning into stablecoins/tokenized RWAs — i.e. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, etc. — see “a giant opportunity” for so-called shadow banks to displace the banks themselves, Sardine strategy head Simon Taylor told Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz on the Stablecon stage.

Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree — a $120 billion asset manager that offers clients a platform to access tokenized funds and assets — called onchain money market funds, for example, “very competitive to a banking experience.” 

“I expect we will see a better user experience taking money from the traditional banking system,” Steinberg noted. “For the large banks, how they deal with this new platform — blockchain — maybe is their single most important issue.” 

While stablecoin market cap predictions in the trillions get thrown around (up from ~$235 billion today), Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin looks at the segment outlook differently. 

“I think that stablecoins fail if [they replace] ACH and Fedwire,” he said. “Stablecoins succeed if new business models on the internet are unlocked [and] if new types of payments that otherwise couldn’t happen are unlocked.”

Finally, it appears we were first to report some news out of Stablecon: 

The neobank halted its US crypto services in 2023, citing regulatory uncertainty. And so it’s fitting the announcement came the same day the SEC offered clarity on whether certain protocol staking practices constitute securities offerings under US federal law. 

The staking practices the SEC mention here don’t. The industry considers this statement a win.

There’ll be more to unpack there and other regulatory developments to come. Until then, enjoy the weekend.

— Ben Strack

Net proceeds of Trump Media’s private placement offering, the company revealed Friday. About 50 institutional investors took part.

The Truth Social operator plans to use the proceeds to create a bitcoin treasury, for which Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital will provide custody. (More on this trend here).

An unexpectedly busy week for tariff policy plus new inflation data has kept investors on their toes the past few days. Next week should be quieter (at least on the economic data front), but how the tariff court battle will play out is anyone’s guess. 

Here’s a recap: 

• The labor market is showing signs of weakening. Initial jobless claims for the week ended May 24 jumped by 14,000, coming in at 240,000. Economists had projected 230,000 first-time filers. A separate report the Conference Board released Thursday showed CEOs are not feeling confident about the future — with 26% of those surveyed saying they lowered planned investments in Q2. This is double the amount of CEOs who revised down investment plans in the first quarter. 

• April’s PCE report, released Friday, came in as expected; showing a 0.1% month-over-month increase in prices. Core PCE rose by the same amount. Real consumer spending also had a slight bump in April, coming in 0.1% higher after analysts had expected the figure to come in flat.

— Casey Wagner