The European Central Bank launched Pontes on Sept. 21, introducing a blockchain settlement service that connects existing payment systems with blockchain-based financial markets and allows banks and investors to settle blockchain transactions in euro central bank money instead of relying on private money such as stablecoins.
Deutsche Bank, Santander and securities settlement institution Clearstream are among the first participants to complete integration. In its initial phase, Pontes will run on weekdays from 08:00 to 16:00 Central European Time.
The ECB also said it plans to allocate a very small portion of its own funds to high-rated, euro-denominated tokenized debt securities issued by public institutions.
Strategy raises BTC holdings to 846,000
Strategy said it added 950 BTC last week and repurchased $174 million of STRC preferred stock. As of Sept. 20, the company held 846,000 BTC and about $6.09 billion in dollar-denominated assets.
Previously disclosed figures showed Strategy held 845,050 BTC at an average purchase price of $75,412 per coin, with a total acquisition cost of about $63.727 billion. During an earlier market decline, its Bitcoin position at one point showed an unrealized loss of more than $10 billion.
Bitmine adds 27,562 ETH in one week
Bitmine (BMNR), described as the largest Ethereum treasury company, said it bought 27,562 ETH over the past week. As of Sept. 20, it held 5,983,940 ETH, equal to 4.9% of Ethereum’s total supply, meaning it has completed about 98% of its goal of holding 5% of total ETH supply.
Of that amount, 5,067,309 ETH has been staked. At $2,688 per ETH, those staked holdings are worth about $13.6 billion. The company said the combined value of its crypto assets, cash, marketable securities and other investments stood at about $17.1 billion, including $714 million in cash and marketable securities.
Circle Mint adds BTC-collateralized borrowing
Circle said its institutional services platform, Circle Mint, has launched a digital asset-backed borrowing feature, or DABB, allowing eligible institutional clients to borrow USDC against BTC collateral on Arc and Ethereum.
Users can deposit BTC, mint cirBTC backed 1:1 by native BTC, and use it as collateral through third-party lending markets. Borrowed USDC will be credited directly to the user’s Circle Mint account.
The feature initially connects to the decentralized lending protocol Morpho, with support for other protocols including Aave planned later. Borrowing rates, collateral requirements and liquidation thresholds are set by third-party markets.
GMGN opens beta for perpetual futures
GMGN co-founder Haze said the platform’s perpetual futures trading function has officially entered public beta and is now open for users to try.
Images released by the team showed a SOL/USDC trading pair, candlestick charts, an order book and position displays. GMGN also opened Chinese- and English-language Telegram groups for user feedback.
Haze said trading depth for the perpetual product comes from cooperation with third-party market makers. Fees are set at 0.045% for takers and 0.015% for makers. The platform currently also offers a 3.5% annualized mechanism for account funds, with related promotional activities planned later. On spending, Haze said GMGN has invested in servers, personnel, security and infrastructure, but did not disclose a specific amount.
Coinbase opens IPO subscriptions to U.S. retail users
Coinbase said it is opening IPO stock subscriptions to U.S. retail users, starting with Oura’s IPO this week.
Eligible users can apply through the Coinbase app to receive shares at the offering price before public trading begins. Final allocations may be filled in full, in part, or not at all.
Coinbase said users who sell IPO shares within 30 days after listing may be suspended from participating in future IPO subscriptions for 60 days. The service is provided by FINRA-registered broker-dealer Coinbase Capital Markets, with clearing and custody handled through Apex Clearing.