BTC Falls to Lowest Since 2024 as Tokenization Wave Grows

Here are the biggest news in crypto and web3 today:

• JPMorgan, Citi, BofA join Clearing House on shared tokenized-deposit network
• Bitcoin breaks 200-week moving average for first time since 2022
• apxUSD loses dollar peg as STRC-backed collateral chain breaks
• CME's Duffy calls US-regulated crypto perps 'a disaster waiting to happen'

JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and more than a dozen peer banks announced a joint initiative to put commercial-bank deposits onchain through a shared network operated by The Clearing House, targeting a first-half 2027 launch. The same day, Jamie Selway, Director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, laid out two structural workstreams: a framework to list and trade tokenized securities under an 'innovation without arbitrage' principle, and a joint SEC-CFTC effort to harmonize swap reporting, portfolio margining, and product definitions across the two agencies.

The crypto side of the chart looks different. Bitcoin broke its 200-week moving average for the first time since the 2022 bear market this morning, falling below $61,000 after a blowout May payrolls report repriced Fed-rate-cut expectations and exposed a $1.2 billion options wall at $60,000. ETH closed the trading session down 9.5%. This week’s BTC selloff is already creating cracks in the broader ecosystem. One example: Apyx Finance's apxUSD slipped to $0.94, the first peg break in an on-chain dollar directly collateralized by STRC-style preferred-stock paper. Two days after BitMine filed the same structure on ETH, the BTC-side version started failing. And from inside the incumbent perimeter, CME CEO Terry Duffy called newly approved US-regulated perps 'a disaster waiting to happen.' Two stacks, opposite directions, same week.

Read more below!

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WATCH

"ETH IS MONEY" — IS THE THESIS OVER? | David Hoffman vs. John Gillen

This week Camila Russo moderated a debate between two of Ethereum's loudest bulls now in opposite trades. David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, exited his entire ETH position after nearly a decade — arguing the thesis played out, with value leaking to L2s, apps, and stablecoins. John Gillen, lead macro researcher at Milk Road and a former BlackRock strategist, fired back with 'Wartime Ethereum' — calling it too early to write the game off, and doubling down by staking.

The debate sits directly on top of today's BitMine filing: if Hoffman is right that value leaks away from ETH, BitMine's treasury bet looks like the wrong asset; if Gillen is right, the preferred-stock issuance is exactly the kind of capital structure a long ETH treasury should be running. Worth a watch for the framing both sides land on.

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TRADFI AND FINTECH

Major US Banks Including JPMorgan, Citi and BofA Plan Shared Tokenized Deposit Network

More than 18 US banks — including JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo — signed onto a shared tokenized-deposit network operated by The Clearing House, the bank-owned payments cooperative that already runs RTP and the ACH-replacement FedNow competitor. The network puts commercial-bank deposits onchain as the settlement asset for interbank transfers, with a first-half 2027 launch target. Each participating bank issues its own tokenized deposit instrument, with The Clearing House operating the interoperability layer.

Why this matters: Tokenized deposits are the bank-owned answer to stablecoins, letting banks keep the float, the spread, and the customer relationship while still offering 24/7 onchain settlement. The Clearing House as the operating layer makes this a serious threat to the stablecoin issuers: it's a coordinated incumbent response with the regulatory cover (bank-deposit insurance, AML compliance) that stablecoin issuers have spent years building toward.

MARKETS

Bitcoin Breaks 200-Week Moving Average for First Time Since 2022 as Jobs Report Reprices Fed Cuts

Bitcoin traded below its 200-week moving average this morning, the first break of the level since the 2022 bear market and the technical signal long-cycle allocators have keyed their thesis to. The trigger was a blowout May payrolls report that pushed two-year Treasury yields higher and forced rate-cut probabilities back out into 2027. A $1.2 billion options wall at the $60,000 strike is the next technical level — the concentration of put exposure that market makers will need to hedge if BTC trades through it.

Why this matters: The 200-week moving average isn't just another line on a chart. It has marked the floor of every Bitcoin bear cycle since 2015, holding even through the worst of 2018 and 2022. A weekly close below it would break a decade-long pattern and signal that this drawdown is structurally different from the dips traders have been conditioned to buy.

DEFI

apxUSD Loses Dollar Peg as Bitcoin Slide Squeezes STRC-Backed Collateral

Apyx Finance's apxUSD stablecoin slipped to $0.90 after Bitcoin's drop below $63K squeezed the STRC-backed collateral pool the token is built on. Apyx mints apxUSD against Strategy's STRC preferred-stock shares — the same instrument Strategy uses to fund its bitcoin treasury and the structure BitMine cloned for ETH this week. When BTC drops, STRC's market price drops with it, the collateral ratio compresses, and the peg fails.

Why this matters: apxUSD shows Strategy’s BTC sale and STRC’s drop below par value are having ripple effects in the market. Apyx Finance is small but the signal is larger: Strategy has become ingrained in the current blockchain market, so any cracks in that model will reverberate far beyond that single company.

MARKETS

CME CEO Terry Duffy Calls US Crypto Perps 'a Disaster Waiting to Happen'

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy, whose exchange runs the regulated US institutional crypto-derivatives book, called the newly approved US perpetual futures 'a disaster waiting to happen,' citing excessive leverage and retail-risk concerns. The comments land in the same week the CFTC approved Kalshi's regulated Bitcoin perp and ICE praised Hyperliquid as a benchmark architecture. Duffy's read is that the regulatory move opens the door for the next retail-blowup cycle.

Why this matters: Duffy's critique is also a competitive position. CME has built its US institutional-crypto-derivatives moat on cash-settled futures and options with daily margin resets. A US-regulated perp gives institutional desks a venue closer to the offshore products their hedge-fund clients already trade, taking flow from CME.

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