Crypto Market Update: FalconX Files for Confidential US IPO

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$73,252.50, trading 0.3 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has sharply dropped as institutional investors pull billions of dollars out of the market. Recent data shows that Bitcoin ETFs suffered a record-breaking nine day streak of consecutive outflows totaling US$2.8 billion starting on May 15.

The bleeding peaked on Wednesday (May 27), with a single-day net loss of US$733.43 million, driven largely by a US$527.84 million capital flight from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT).

Analysts noted that Wednesday's rout was the fifth worst day in ETF history and effectively dragged total year-to-date inflows into negative territory. Stripped of institutional liquidity, Bitcoin abandoned its breakout attempt near US$82,000 and tumbled below US$74,000, hitting a fresh six week low.

Ether (ETH) was priced at US$2,007.88, trading 0.6 percent lower over the last 24 hours.

Altcoin price update

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.32, trading 1.1 percent lower in 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$81.90, trading 1 percent lower over the past 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

FalconX joins Wall Street with confidential IPO filing

Crypto trading powerhouse FalconX has submitted a confidential initial public offering (IPO) filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The California-based firm is targeting a public market debut toward the end of this year, with the exact timing dependent on broader digital asset market conditions.

The company was last valued at US$8 billion in the private markets, making its filing a highly anticipated move for Wall Street. However, while institutional analysts expected a massive wave of crypto listings this year following the 2025 public debuts of Gemini (NASDAQ:GEMI) and Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), worsening market conditions have abruptly frozen the IPO pipeline.

Major industry players including Kraken, Consensys, Ledger and Grayscale have all officially postponed their public listing plans while waiting for the digital asset market to recover.

This ongoing macro slowdown has forced alternative crypto firms to entirely abandon the traditional IPO route, turning instead to special purpose acquisition companies to secure public listings.

Tether’s stablecoin explodes with 500 percent monthly growth

Tether's US-focused stablecoin, USAT, saw its circulating supply explode by more than 500 percent month-over-month throughout April. A reserve report from accounting firm Deloitte confirmed that the digital dollar’s supply reached US$140.8 million on April 30, up 540 percent from US$22 million at the end of March.

The company stated that the rapid expansion stems from increased adoption across institutional treasury operations, corporate settlement flows, and regulated liquidity management.

Launched in January of this year, USAT is issued directly by Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered cryptocurrency bank, and maintains a strict one-to-one peg to the US dollar.

Tether’s primary flagship token, USDT, remains the largest dollar-backed cryptocurrency in the world with a US$189 billion market cap, while Circle Internet Group’s rival USDC token firmly holds the second-place spot at roughly US$76 billion.

Paxos secures SEC registration to operate as clearing agency

Paxos Securities Settlement Company has secured official registration from the SEC to operate as a clearing agency under Section 17A of the Securities Exchange Act.

The regulatory greenlight makes the Paxos subsidiary the only blockchain-native firm authorized to act as a central securities depository in the US. Granted as a temporary registration, the order allows the company to provide clearing and settlement services while continuously meeting strict federal compliance guidelines.

According to CEO Charles Cascarilla, the approval concludes a seven-year regulatory effort that began with a 2019 No-Action Letter and a subsequent settlement pilot program. That operational pilot has handled daily US equity clearing since February 2020 alongside major financial institutions, including a 2022 partnership with State Street that successfully achieved "T+0" same-day stock settlement.

Legacy infrastructure providers have recently entered the tokenization market, with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation recently unveiling its own Wall Street-backed tokenization plans.

The regulatory win follows a turbulent period for Paxos, which accidentally minted and burned 300 trillion PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) PYUSD tokens during an internal technical error in October 2025 before later securing conditional approval to convert into an OCC national trust bank.

SoFi launches SoFiUSD stablecoin for consumer app members

Digital financial services and technology company SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) rolled out its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, to its 14.7 million members on Wednesday, making it the first US national bank to embed a bank-issued stablecoin directly into a consumer banking app.

Members can buy, sell, hold and convert the dollar-pegged token within the same app they use for savings, spending, borrowing and investing, with full availability expected by early June as users update to the latest app version.

SoFiUSD is fully reserved 1:1 with US dollars held at SoFi Bank. It runs on both Ethereum and Solana blockchains, and will be supported by regular independent auditor attestations of its reserves. The stablecoin was first announced in December 2025 for enterprise partners, then expanded to Mastercard’s global payments network in March 2026.

“At SoFi, we believe we can combine the speed and versatility of the blockchain with the trust of a bank to improve how money moves around the world,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, in a press release. “People no longer have to choose between blockchain technology and regulated banking products. With SoFiUSD, we’re giving our members a single place to buy, hold, and pay with digital assets in the same app they already use to save, spend, borrow, and invest.”

The company saw a major spike in its share price on Friday, opening over seven percent higher than its previous close.