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Foresight News reports, according to The Guardian, that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has invested £215,000 in Bitcoin vault company Stack BTC, holding a 5.61% stake. Since the company’s establishment in March this year, the investment has dropped by 15.48%, with a loss of approximately £565,000. Stack BTC’s largest shareholder, Paul Withers (20.72% stake), is also owner of gold dealer Direct Bullion, which previously paid Farage £270,000 for 12 hours of brand promotion. Farage denies serving as Stack BTC’s brand ambassador, claiming he is merely a regular shareholder, though he did appear in the company’s promotional video.

• BNY added native USDC mint and burn capabilities to its Digital Asset Custody platform. • Institutional clients can now mint, redeem, custody and transfer USDC through a single banking interface. • The expansion deepens BNY’s role in the stablecoin ecosystem as institutional adoption continues to accelerate. BNY has expanded its partnership with Circle by integrating native USDC mint and redemption capabilities into its Digital Asset Custody platform, allowing institutional clients to convert U.S. dollars into USDC – and redeem the stablecoin back into fiat – without leaving the bank’s custody infrastructure. The announcement represents another step in the convergence of traditional banking and blockchain-based payments, enabling institutions to manage cash, custody and stablecoin operations through a single regulated platform. Expanding Institutional Access to Stablecoins For institutional treasury teams, the traditional workflow of moving between fiat and stablecoins has historically been fragmented and capital-inefficient. Previously, firms often had to pre-fund liquidity pools across multiple disparate crypto-exchanges or third-party platforms to ensure they could settle transactions in real-time. By integrating native minting and redemption directly into BNY’s custody environment, the bank effectively removes the need for this “liquidity fragmentation.” Treasury managers can now execute a “single-click” conversion within the same security perimeter as their traditional cash holdings. This consolidation doesn’t just reduce operational overhead; it lowers the counterparty risk inherent in moving value across multiple non-bank intermediaries Under the expanded partnership, BNY’s institutional customers can hold USDC within the bank’s digital asset custody platform while directly instructing the bank to mint new tokens or redeem existing USDC for U.S. dollars. Previously, institutions often relied on multiple providers to manage fiat settlement, custody and stablecoin issuance. The latest integration consolidates those functions into a single operational workflow, reducing settlement complexity and allowing treasury teams to manage digital dollar liquidity through an existing banking relationship. USDC becomes the first stablecoin supported under the new functionality, although BNY indicated that additional digital cash products and stablecoin issuers could be added over time. Building on an Existing Relationship The expanded service builds on a longstanding relationship between the two companies. BNY already serves as one of the primary custodians of the cash reserves backing USDC and acts as custodian and transfer agent for the Circle Reserve Fund, the BlackRock-managed money market fund that holds a significant portion of the stablecoin’s reserve assets. By integrating issuance and redemption directly into its custody platform, BNY is extending its role beyond safeguarding reserves to supporting the complete institutional lifecycle of stablecoin transactions. The move reflects growing demand from banks, asset managers and corporations seeking faster access to blockchain-based settlement without sacrificing the operational controls of traditional financial infrastructure. Stablecoins Move Further Into Traditional Finance The partnership also highlights the accelerating institutionalization of stablecoins following regulatory developments in the United States. The GENIUS Act established a federal framework for payment stablecoins, providing greater legal certainty for banks offering custody and related services. Since then, financial institutions have increasingly expanded their digital asset capabilities, viewing regulated stablecoins as an extension of existing payment infrastructure rather than a separate crypto product. For BNY, integrating USDC issuance and redemption directly into custody services enables clients to move between traditional bank deposits and tokenized dollars without relying on external intermediaries, reducing operational friction while improving liquidity management. The ability to mint and redeem stablecoins within the same environment may also reduce the need for institutions to pre-fund liquidity across multiple platforms, allowing capital to be deployed more efficiently. A Growing Institutional Stablecoin Market BNY oversees approximately $59.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, making it the world’s largest custodian bank. Its deeper integration with Circle provides another signal that stablecoins are increasingly becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure rather than remaining confined to crypto-native markets. The announcement follows a series of institutional initiatives focused on tokenized deposits, blockchain settlement and digital cash infrastructure as banks prepare for greater adoption of programmable payments and tokenized financial assets. For Circle, the partnership expands distribution of USDC through one of the largest custody platforms in global finance. For BNY, it strengthens the bank’s position as a bridge between traditional capital markets and blockchain-based settlement networks. The BNY-Circle partnership represents the “quiet” institutionalization of blockchain. While headlines often focus on price volatility, the real story in 2026 is the migration of high-volume financial workflows to on-chain rails. As banks like BNY move beyond reserve custody and into the active management of digital dollar life cycles, the distinction between “crypto” and “traditional finance” is fading. We are moving toward a future where a single custody platform serves as the bridge for all global value, whether it is held in a traditional fiat account or a programmable, tokenized dollar.

BlockBeats News, July 2nd. The US short-term interest rate futures surged after the non-farm payroll data was released, leading to a reduction in market expectations of a Fed rate hike. The market had already priced in the expectation of a December rate hike by the Fed, shifting from the previous expectation of a rate hike in October.