Mastercard Expands Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure

BTC fell to a $65K low, now almost 50% below its $126K ATH, while ETH dropped 5.5% to below $1,900; the selloff triggered $1.8B in liquidations, including nearly $1.6B of longs.

Block Scholes is an FCA-regulated institutional crypto derivatives analytics platform. Live data, IV surfaces, and backtesting available via blockscholes.com.

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In Today’s Note

• BTC and ETH sold off sharply, with BTC falling to $65K and ETH trading below $1,900 as ETF outflows and Strategy’s recent BTC sale continued to weigh on sentiment.

• The selloff triggered $1.8B in liquidations, while short-dated BTC and ETH implied volatility rose sharply and put skew moved further in favour of downside protection.

• Coinbase Ventures backed Ethena, while Mastercard expanded stablecoin settlement options and Galaxy launched an institutional OTC prediction markets desk.

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Macro & Markets

• After falling below $70K at the start of the week, Bitcoin has continued its selloff over the past 24 hours, falling to a low of $65K. It now trades almost 50% below its October 2025 $126K all-time high.

• Sentiment has weakened against the backdrop of Strategy Inc, the largest Bitcoin DAT, selling a small portion of its crypto holdings as well as the longest spot ETF outflow streak since launch.

• ETH equally plunged lower, down 5.5% over the past 24 hours and currently trading below $1,900.