Equities update | June 5th, 2026

Week 23 saw heightened volatility across blockchain equities, driven by broader risk-off sentiment in technology and semiconductor stocks, alongside a sharp sell-off in Bitcoin and wider crypto assets. Despite the market weakness, the US macro backdrop remains resilient: nonfarm payrolls surprised to the upside, unemployment held steady at 4.3%, and the data showed limited evidence of an imminent recession. However, the stronger labour-market print also pushed Treasury yields higher and revived market discussion around the possibility of a Fed rate hike by year-end 2026, creating an additional headwind for growth equities and crypto assets. Regulatory momentum was more constructive, with the CFTC opening the door to regulated US crypto perpetual futures through approvals involving Kalshi and Coinbase, while the CLARITY Act remains alive in the Senate process after advancing out of the Senate Banking Committee, keeping hopes for a broader US crypto market-structure framework intact. 

Week 23 key developments in Blockchain Equities:

• Index performance: The Index declined 2.9% this week, but materially outperformed Bitcoin, which fell 16.1% amid broad crypto-related outflows and weaker risk appetite. Macro data added to the pressure, with May nonfarm payrolls surprising to the upside at 172k versus consensus expectations of 88k, while the prior month was revised up to 179k from 115k. The stronger labour-market print pushed Treasury yields higher and with markets now firmly pricing in a Fed rate hike by year-end 2026, adding a further headwind for duration-sensitive risk assets, including Bitcoin and crypto equities. 

• Block Index key movers: 7-day top performers: Oracle (+16.0%), Samsung (+14.4%), Hyperliquid Strategies (+11.1%) 7-day worst performers: Circle (-16.4%), Strategy Inc (-14.7%), Metaplanet (-14.1%) 

• Index constituents Coinbase and Robinhood benefited from a major US crypto market-structure development, as the CFTC opened the door to regulated crypto perpetual futures — The CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures contract and separately confirmed that Coinbase Financial Markets can offer US clients access to certain Deribit perpetuals as foreign futures, creating regulated pathways into a product category historically dominated by offshore and decentralised venues. With perpetual futures representing one of the largest global crypto trading pools, the change is most directly positive for platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, which can expand their regulated derivatives offerings and retain more active trader flow onshore. Robinhood is also a beneficiary, given its growing push into event contracts, active trading, crypto and broader retail market access, with regulated perpetuals potentially expanding the high-engagement product set available to US retail users over time. The announcement weighed on incumbent exchange operators such as CME, Cboe and ICE, as investors assessed whether crypto-native product structures could disrupt traditional futures and options franchises. While CME remains more institutionally driven and its CEO warned of leverage and auto-liquidation risks, the broader read-through is that crypto market structure is adding competition to the incumbents.

• Earnings Recap – Key Holdings:

  • HIVE Digital – Positive

Other news - Index constituents:

• IREN announced its first Australian data-centre campus, securing a planned 800MW site in Bundey, South Australia, with high-voltage transmission access and energisation targeted from 2028. The project extends IREN’s AI infrastructure footprint into APAC, with South Australia’s renewable-heavy grid and submarine fibre connectivity into Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

• Robinhood completed its acquisition of WonderFi, giving it a regulated Canadian crypto footprint through Bitbuy and Coinsquare, while adding roughly 300k WonderFi customers and taking Robinhood to over 1m international funded customers.

• Galaxy launched an institutional OTC prediction-markets trading desk through its Global Markets division, debuting with a US$10M Kalshi trade with crypto-native hedge fund Arca tied to the outcome of the CLARITY Act. The offering gives hedge funds, family offices and institutions access to event-driven markets at larger size and with greater discretion than retail interfaces, while allowing Galaxy to structure prediction-market exposure alongside hedges in equities, commodities and macro instruments.

• Hut 8 priced US$4.25B of investment-grade senior secured notes for its Beacon Point data-centre project, adding another major financing milestone to its AI infrastructure pivot. The notes are fully amortising, due 2042 and non-recourse to Hut 8 Corp., with proceeds expected to fund the 352MW Texas data-centre project, substation, reserves and transaction costs.

• Strategy made a small but symbolically important 32 BTC sale for approximately US$2.5M, with proceeds expected to help fund preferred stock distributions, while total holdings remained effectively unchanged at 843,706 BTC. The sale is immaterial in size, but important for the DAT narrative because it shows Strategy is willing to actively manage its Bitcoin stack and liability structure.

• Keel Infrastructure, the rebranded Bitfarms entity, priced an upsized US$400M offering of 1.25% convertible senior notes due 2032, increased from the originally proposed US$350M.

• SBI Holdings continued to push toward becoming a fully AI-driven financial group, with management highlighting the use of Claude across group employees, AI agents for customer support at SBI Securities, and a broader strategy to combine AI × Web3 in financial services.

Other news – Non-Index constituents:

• Stripe, Visa and Mastercard are reportedly among the backers of a soon-to-launch stablecoin platform, with Coinbase also said to be exploring participation.

• Bybit became the first major crypto exchange to integrate Western Union’s USDPT stablecoin, making the token available through Bybit’s fiat channels in Latin America.

• Visa partnered with Brale to explore private stablecoin settlement for institutional payments using SBC, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin on the Canton Network. The proof of concept will test how privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure can support institutional payment flows while preserving control over sensitive transaction data.