Big showdown

U.S. crypto and fintech organizations are intensifying efforts to prevent large institutions from trampling on a federal measure meant to open up the banking system.

In a letter sent yesterday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a coalition of lobbyist groups, including the Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and Financial Technology Association, strongly urged regulators to preserve consumer protections found in the CFPB's still-in-flux Rule 1033. It's a rule intended to guarantee individuals the right to share their financial data with authorized third parties, such as digital wallets, fintech apps and crypto exchanges.

The CFPB finalized its version of Rule 1033 last year. However, the Bank Policy Institute sued the CFPB, claiming the rule overstepped legal bounds and jeopardizes privacy. Since the lawsuit, the regulatory agency has reopened the feedback phase surrounding the rule, opening the door to major revisions, stirring intense industry debate and teeing up a monumental showdown between DeFi and TradFi just as it seemed that the two factions were finding common ground.

The crypto coalition argues that large banks are trying to narrow who qualifies as a “consumer representative” while also introducing fees for data access, CryptoNews said.

Banks, if successful in their bid to tweak the rule, could "choke off connections between the banking system and digital finance platforms such as stablecoin wallets," said CryptoNews, citing banking sector critics.

Crypto and fintech groups insist the stakes are high. The coalition’s letter warns that restricting data access could undermine digital innovation and limit consumer freedom.

“Financial data belongs to the American people," the coalition's letter states. "Not the nation’s largest banks.”

After muscling its way toward $112K yesterday in the face of macro headwinds, Bitcoin finds itself once again struggling to hang on to the $108K mark, seen as a crucial support level.

As usual, U.S.-China trade tensions continue to befuddle traders unable to discern whether the situation is going to get worse despite reports that President Trump is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of next week.

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, BTC sank to $107.6K, according to CoinGecko. The largest crypto had briefly rebounded to $111.5K on Monday following a three-day slide.

Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, told The Block that crypto prices may continue to swing to and fro haphazardly. "Volatility will continue as long as there [are] trade tensions between the U.S. and China," he said.

Some altcoins fell sharply. Ethereum declined 3.5% in the past day as it dropped below the key $4K mark. Solana shed 3%.

Late last week came a Bloomberg report that Ripple planned to tap a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to raise funds to buy $1 billion worth of XRP to be held in a digital asset treasury. At the same time, Ripple announced its $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, a provider of treasury management systems.

Proverbial handwriting on the wall turned into an actual press release yesterday when Ripple-backed Evernorth Holdings announced plans to go public. How so? It'll be done through a business combination agreement with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a Nasdaq-listed SPAC.

In a statement, Evernorth, an XRP-adoption-focused company, said the transaction indeed is expected to raise more than $1 billion in gross proceeds, including $200 million from Japan's SBI. Other investors include digital asset heavyweights Pantera Capital and Kraken. Net proceeds will primarily fund open-market purchases of XRP to build "the world's leading institutional XRP treasury," with a portion allocated to working capital, general corporate purposes and transaction expenses, Evernorth said.

"With over a decade of uptime and a rapidly growing DeFi ecosystem, XRP is well-positioned for adoption," said Evernorth's CEO Asheesh Birla, a former senior executive at Ripple, in a post on X. "Evernorth is built to meet that moment."

Following in the footsteps of Michael Saylor's Strategy, numerous companies have turned themselves into digital-asset treasuries, stuffing their balance sheets with cryptos.

At first, the play was centered mainly on Bitcoin. But corporate treasury strategies have since expanded to include assets such as Ethereum, Solana and XRP. Earlier this month, a Nasdaq-listed solar power company, VivoPower International, announced it had raised $19M to support its recently launched XRP-focused treasury strategy.

Deng Chao, CEO of crypto venture firm HashKey Capital, told Cointelegraph that crypto treasury strategies continue to confront some degree of push back from traditional finance. The recent downturn experienced by many altcoins is only adding to the skepticism.

Evernorth, per The Block, plans to set itself apart by deploying resources toward advancing the XRP ecosystem more broadly. This includes operating XRP validators and leveraging Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as a kind of on-ramp into XRP-based DeFi activities. The company also will provide liquidity and participate in projects that expand XRP's real-world utility.