What has happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? The most relevant local and international events, as well as interesting background reports, are summarized concisely in this weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
This week, bitcoin treasury company Twenty One launched on the NYSE with 43,500 BTC worth approximately 4 billion USD, positioning itself as the third-largest publicly traded bitcoin holder worldwide. The company, majority-controlled by Tether and Bitfinex, went public through a SPAC merger. Unlike competitors such as MicroStrategy, Twenty One offers complete on-chain verification of all bitcoin holdings via xxi.mempool.space. CEO Jack Mallers, previously founder of Lightning payment app Strike, aims to attract institutional investors through enhanced transparency.
The Bitcoin treasury company Twenty One has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol XXI.
Michael Saylor fights exclusion of bitcoin companies from global equity indices
Index provider MSCI plans to exclude companies with over 50 percent digital assets from its global equity indices. The rule would affect up to 39 publicly traded firms and could be implemented as early as February 2026. Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of bitcoin treasury company Strategy, criticizes the measure as discriminatory, arguing that similar concentrations are tolerated among oil, real estate, or media companies. Strategy holds 660,624 BTC worth approximately 60 billion USD. JPMorgan estimates passive capital outflows of 2.8 billion USD for Strategy alone in the event of MSCI exclusion. Saylor therefore launched the industry initiative “Bitcoin For Corporations” to coordinate resistance.
Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy, has issued a formal letter of objection to the MSCI Equity Index Committee.
JP Morgan processes first corporate bond issuance via public blockchain
US banking giant JP Morgan tokenized a 50-million-dollar corporate bond for crypto company Galaxy Digital Holdings on the Solana blockchain and settled it in USDC. This marks the first time the bank has used a public blockchain instead of its proprietary Kinexys platform. The transaction involved both crypto exchange Coinbase Global and asset manager Franklin Templeton. Settlement occurred within minutes instead of the usual multi-day processes. The transaction signals growing institutional confidence in public blockchains, particularly as SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ “Project Crypto” initiative outlines a modernized regulatory framework.
JP Morgan, the global investment bank, has issued a 50 million dollar commercial paper for Galaxy Digital Holdings on the Solana blockchain.
Wall Street finances Ripple with protection against XRP price losses
Blockchain company Ripple closed a financing round of 500 million USD at a valuation of 40 billion USD. However, investors secured unusual protective mechanisms: guaranteed annual returns of 10 percent with buyback rights, or 25 percent upon early repayment. The context is the extreme dependence of the company’s value on the XRP price, which dropped 40 percent between July and November. Participants include Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Marshall Wace, Brevan Howard, Galaxy Digital, and Pantera Capital. Despite the SEC’s classification of XRP as a commodity, institutional investors continue to demand protections that more closely resemble debt capital characteristics.
The investors in Ripple’s latest financing round secured protective mechanisms that shield them against the volatility of XRP.
ARK Invest lowers bitcoin price target to 700,000 dollars
In addition: Investment firm ARK Invest lowered its bitcoin price target for 2030 from 1.5 million to 700,000 to 750,000 USD. CEO Cathie Wood simultaneously argues that institutional adoption is breaking the historical four-year cycle. Since January 2024, over 100 billion USD has flowed into US spot bitcoin ETFs. Volatility has declined significantly, while the maximum correction since the October all-time high was only 26 percent instead of the historical 70 to 80 percent following halvings. Wood expects institutional asset managers to allocate approximately 6.5 percent of their 200 trillion USD in assets under management to bitcoin by 2030. Over 70 publicly traded companies already hold bitcoin on their balance sheets.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood predicts the end of Bitcoin’s traditional market cycle and lowers her 2030 price target to 1.2 million USD.
