Night crypto digest: Bitcoin held $63,000, and the SEC is preparing a surprise with tokenized stocks
While the market consolidated in a narrow range, the regulatory environment continued to deliver significant surprises. The past 24 hours were marked by several events that could determine the direction of the industry for the coming months.
Market: cautious stability
Bitcoin (BTC) traded around $63,794 by Tuesday morning, making an overnight journey from a low of $63,200 to a local high of $64,450. Ultimately, the leading cryptocurrency returned to its opening level, showing volatility typical of an accumulation phase. Ethereum (ETH) showed similar dynamics, recovering to $1,890 after an overnight drop to $1,853.
In the top 10 by market capitalization, no pronounced movements were observed. Dogecoin (DOGE) and BNB gained 2.91% and 2.19%, respectively, while Hyperliquid (HYPE) corrected by 1.47%. Among the top 100 assets, Canton (CC) led the gains with a 5.52% increase, while the Audiera (BEAT) token plunged 10.7%, becoming the day's laggard.
Flows into spot ETFs were mixed: bitcoin funds attracted $4.89 million, Solana products — $1.43 million, while Ethereum ETFs lost $1.76 million. Over the day, exchanges liquidated positions of 76,376 traders totaling $175.22 million. The largest liquidation order was executed on Binance for the BTCUSDT pair and amounted to $2.46 million.
Regulatory breakthrough: banks and tokenization
The key event of the night was a statement by Jonathan Gould, head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). He confirmed that crypto companies should gain access to a national banking license. According to him, the agency has received 40 applications to create new banks over the past 18 months and is now reviewing them on an expedited basis — within 120 days.
In parallel, Strategy CEO Fong Le stated an intention to resume bitcoin purchases by the end of the year. This is an important signal: despite recent sales of part of its reserves, the company has bought about 175,000 BTC since the start of the year, while selling only roughly 7,000. The proceeds went toward dividends and share buybacks, but the accumulation strategy remains unchanged.
Far more intriguing is the information that the SEC may present an exemption for trading tokenized stocks as early as Friday. The regulator intends to consider a special regime for certain contracts involving crypto assets. This potentially opens the door to 24/7 trading of tokenized securities on the blockchain. However, public companies will be able to object to third-party digitalization of their shares, and platforms will have to tighten anti-money laundering rules.
My comment: The OCC statement and the possible SEC move are not just a tactical concession but a fundamental shift in the approach of U.S. authorities. If the exemption for tokenized stocks is approved, we will witness the beginning of a new era of liquidity where traditional markets and DeFi finally merge. For investors, this means the emergence of new instruments, but also new risks associated with regulation and volatility.