Appold Market Watch - Week ending 20 June 2025

Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 20 June 2025

🔷 The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, a bipartisan bill to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The bill, which outlines how U.S. firms can issue and manage fiat-backed stablecoins for payments, will now require the approval of the House of Congress and President Trump’s signature to become law.

Appold view: Although the GENIUS Act is not yet law, the bipartisan support for it in the U.S. Senate is an encouraging sign of lawmakers' shifting sentiments about the necessity of addressing the lack of regulatory clarity that has dogged the digital asset industry in the past.

🔷 JPMorganChase has chosen the Base network to pilot its newly launched deposit token, JPMD. A fixed amount of JPMD - a permissioned token designed to represent commercial bank deposits - will be transferred to digital asset exchange Coinbase for use by approved Coinbase institutional clients.

Appold view: This move by JPMorgan highlights the growing integration of traditional finance with blockchain technology, emphasising the role of deposit tokens in bridging the gap between conventional banking and the digital asset ecosystem. We have a lot to say about this. But in short, it’s a notable development: a strictly permissioned (only KYC'd institutions can use it), fully 1:1 dollar-backed digital deposit token has been built on a public Ethereum Layer 2. Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT are more embedded in the broader crypto ecosystem. Still, this institutional-focused digital product will most certainly accelerate other banks' efforts to avoid being left behind in this technology space. 

🔷 The stock price of Circle Internet Group (CRCL), the issuer of stablecoin USDC, has risen over 540% since its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on 5 June, with the price reported to have risen 34% on news of the U.S. Senate’s advancement of the GENIUS Act.

Appold view: Circle’s post-IPO rally success will likely be viewed as a milestone of institutional engagement with digital assets, reflecting high investor optimism about stablecoin utility in the future of payment rails.

🔷 Coinbase is seeking approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer tokenised equities to U.S. customers. Tokenised equities are not currently available for trading in the U.S., so Coinbase would either need to be granted a "no action letter" or exemptive relief from the SEC, meaning the regulator would agree not to pursue enforcement action against Coinbase if it were to launch the new service offering.

Appold view: Several firms, including Coinbase’s rival Kraken, are experimenting with tokenised equities, but these have been in select markets outside the U.S. If Coinbase gets SEC approval, it will be in direct competition with more traditional retail brokerages such as Robinhood and Charles Schwab.

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