BofA survey: Fund managers keep crypto allocations near zero despite market growth

CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index is up $1501.78 today or 1.30% to $116824.28

• Highest 4 p.m. level since Aug. 17, 2025, when it traded at $117645.96
• Snaps a three day losing streak
• Up 7.24% month-to-date
• Up 25.06% year-to-date
• Down 6.16% from its all-time intraday high of $124495.51 on Aug. 14, 2025
• Up 94.73% from 52 weeks ago (Sept. 17, 2024), when it traded at $59992.31
• Down 6.16% from its 52-week intraday high of $124495.51 on Aug. 14, 2025
• Up 99.26% from its 52-week intraday low of $57613.53 on Sept. 17, 2024
• Traded as high as $116916.39; highest intraday level since Aug. 23, 2025
• Up 1.38% at today's intraday high

Note: CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX) at 4 p.m. ET close

Data compiled by Dow Jones Market Data

VivoPower International (ticker VVPR) said Tuesday its mining arm Caret Digital will expand operations and swap mined tokens into XRP, a move it claims will give the company exposure at an effective 65% discount.

The company did not specify how much XRP it expects to acquire or which mined tokens will be exchanged. Caret Digital currently mines Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin, according to its website. XRP is the third-largest crypto asset, with about $182 billion in circulation, according to The Block's price page.

VivoPower first unveiled its XRP treasury strategy in May, backed by a $121 million private placement led by His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Talal Al Saud, chairman of Eleventh Holding Company in Saudi Arabia. Adam Traidman, a former Ripple board member, also participated and joined VivoPower’s advisory board as chairman.

In June, the company said it would use BitGo as its exclusive custodian and over-the-counter trading partner to acquire XRP. Around the same time, it partnered with Layer 1 blockchain developer Flare, which is backed by Ripple Labs, to generate yield on its holdings. VivoPower said the program would begin with a $100 million capital allocation with plans to reinvest income directly into its XRP reserves.

Last month, VivoPower announced additional plans to acquire $100 million of privately held Ripple Labs shares through "definitive" agreements with current shareholders, subject to final approval from Ripple’s executive management. VivoPower said that deal would give it exposure equivalent to 211 million XRP at an implied $0.47 per token — an 86% discount to market prices at the time.

VivoPower says its XRP treasury strategy is dual-pronged: combining token swaps from mining activities with Ripple equity purchases to lower average acquisition costs while building deeper exposure to the XRP ecosystem.

In recent weeks, the company has also expanded into other parts of the XRP ecosystem. Its electric vehicle unit Tembo will accept Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin for payments, and it partnered with Doppler Finance to deploy $30 million of XRP into institutional yield programs, with proceeds reinvested into reserves.

VivoPower’s shares were down about 0.5% Tuesday at $5, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $50 million.

XRP is trading over $3, up 1.7% in the past 24 hours, with a market capitalization of about $182 billion, according to The Block’s XRP price page.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Google has unveiled its open-source payment standard that makes it possible for artificial intelligence (AI) agents to settle monetary transactions via traditional trails as well as stablecoins, Fortune reports.

The tech giant aims to standardize the rails for future AI-to-AI commerce before it becomes a reality. 

Broad collaboration 

For implementing this initiative, the tech behemoth has collaborated with Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation (EF), as well as roughly 60 payment and commerce firms, including American Express and Salesforce.

The collaboration between Coinbase and Google was meant to ensure the interoperability of payments. 

The protocol, which is known as Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), is an open protocol that is meant to serve as an extension of Google’s April Agent2Agent (A2A), the protocol that enables communication between agents. 

Essentially, the idea is that AI agents will be able to pay bills or buy things on a user's behalf, and Google is working on a universal payments protocol. AI agents could potentially gain the ability to pay each other automatically.

Analysts have forecasted that Solana (SOL) treasury companies might outshine Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in 2025.

Galaxy’s Michael Marcantonio outlined various reasons why SOL is the superior choice for such companies, including its higher staging yield and throughput.Expert Backs SOL as High-Yield Reserve Asset

Marcantonio shared his views in a September 15 X post, where he argued that SOL offers treasury firms unique advantages compared to its larger competitors. He explained that SOL has a gross staking yield of about 7–8%, compared with just 3–4% for ETH. Reinvesting these rewards allows a treasury’s net asset value (NAV) to grow faster, creating a steady income stream.

He gave the example of a $9 billion ETH treasury that could produce around $300 million per year, noting that SOL’s higher rate gives it an even stronger position. On the other hand, BTC does not provide any yield, so companies holding it as a reserve asset cannot generate the same kind of returns.

The expert also talked about SOL’s strong transaction throughput, noting that despite its market cap being five to six times smaller than ETH’s, it handles more transactions and reaches more users. He explained that this level of network activity gives firms that accumulate the former greater upside. This is because their NAV per share can grow from treasury mechanics, and the possibility of SOL being valued higher when compared with ETH.

The 38-year-old also looked at volatility and growth. He noted that SOL has historically been more volatile than its counterparts, with levels around 80% compared to 40% for BTC and 65% for ETH. This difference makes financing tools such as convertible bonds, warrants, and structured deals cheaper for companies that have SOL in their treasuries, and helps them accumulate tokens at a faster pace.

He added that this kind of dilution increases the number of tokens per share more quickly, which boosts net asset value.SOL Gains Ground in Corporate Stockpiles

Marcantonio further explained that ETH is already widely used by institutions, while SOL is still in its growth stage. That means reserve companies linked to the latter can benefit from its financial characteristics and expanding adoption.

BTC and ETH remain the dominant assets in corporate treasuries, with over 130 publicly traded firms holding the former and more than 40 accumulating the latter as strategic reserves.

Flagship companies like Strategy and Metaplanet continue tobuildtheir positions in BTC, while others, such as BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming,accumulateETH. However, a new wave of treasury firms is also turning to SOL.

In the lead is Upexi Inc., holding over 2 million of the cryptocurrency, followed by DeFi Development Corp., which reported nearly 1 million SOL in its treasury, and Sol Strategies Inc., which has 260,000 SOL on its books.

Stablecoin issuer Circle is expanding into Hyperliquid with an investment and the launch of native USD Coin on the protocol, as stablecoin competition on the network intensifies.

According to a Tuesday announcement, Circle is now a stakeholder in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, directly holding its native cryptocurrency Hyperliquid (HYPE). Circle is also considering becoming a validator for the protocol.

The company, which went public on June 5, is behind the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, a digital asset redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. The token will be natively deployed on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s smart contract layer.

“This launch is the first step toward enabling USDC deposits into Hyperliquid’s spot and perpetuals exchange on HyperCore,” Circle said on X.

Analyst Austin Hilton has sounded a major XRP warning even as the price continues to consolidate. He declared that this is the last chance to get into the altcoin before its price goes on a parabolic run. 

Last Chance To Get In On XRP Before Its Q4 Bull Run

In a YouTube video, Austin Hilton warned that this is the last chance for investors to accumulate XRP before its major bull run in the last quarter of this year. He noted that September was expected to be a slow month with little action from the altcoin, especially as investors wait on a Fed rate cut. 

The analyst further remarked that the altcoin has even outperformed expectations this month, considering that it was able to reclaim the psychological $3 level and has held well above support levels. However, Austin Hilton predicts that a greater run lies ahead for the altcoin, with liquidity set to return in the fourth quarter from both retail and institutional investors. 

Another bullish fundamental he alluded to is the fact that XRP is being taken off exchanges, which indicates that crypto whales are actively accumulating the token. This could lead to a supply shock, which could serve as a catalyst for higher prices. Bitcoinist reported that Coinbase’s reserves have crashed by 90% as whales move tokens off the exchange to hold for the long term. 

Meanwhile, four major crypto exchanges, including Binance, saw massive demand earlier in the month, leading them to add 1.2 million coins to meet this demand. The CryptoQuant analysis that pointed this out noted that the demand might have been coordinated and might have come from institutions. This comes ahead of the potential XRP ETFs launch, which is bullish for the altcoin’s price. 

Institutions Set To Flow Into The Altcoin With ETF Launch

Institutions are set to inject new capital into the ecosystem with the launch of the first spot XRP ETF, which is happening this week. REX Shares confirmed that its REX-Osprey XRP ETF (XRPR) is coming this week. It noted that this will be the first U.S. ETF to deliver investors spot exposure to XRP. 

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated that the REX-Osprey XRP ETF isn’t a “pure” spot ETF. He explained that it will hold spot directly and other spot XRP ETFs from around the world to get its exposure. The analyst also noted that the fund’s prospectus includes language that would allow it to invest in derivatives for exposure if needed. However, that won’t be the primary exposure method. 

The spot XRP ETFs could get a SEC approval in October, which is another factor that could serve as a catalyst for higher prices for the cryptocurrency heading into the fourth quarter. Seven fund issuers are currently awaiting the SEC’s approval to offer a 100% spot XRP ETF. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $2.97, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.