Fortune 500 blockchain adoption hits 60% as Institutions Inject $50B into Crypto Funds in Q1

Cryptocurrency

Summary:

Use cases continue to broaden beyond finance and technology into retail, healthcare, auto, and food sectors as firms trial payment rails, supply-chain tracking, and identity credentials.

Fortune 500 companies and global asset managers continued to expand blockchain activity and allocations during the first half of 2025, according to Coinbase’s latest State of Crypto report.

Six in ten Fortune 500 executives say their firms run on-chain initiatives, and the average number of projects per company jumped to 9.7 from 5.8 year on year, a 67% rise.

Furthermore, almost 20% of respondents now classify blockchain programs as a core element of their future strategy, up 47% from 2024.

Use cases continue to broaden beyond finance and technology into retail, healthcare, auto, and food sectors as firms trial payment rails, supply-chain tracking, and identity credentials.

Executives also point to new revenue streams, as 38% believe on-chain tooling can generate incremental sales, while 37% report active ideation pipelines for additional deployments.

Boardroom interest aligns with resource commitments. Nearly half of Fortune 500 respondents say capital expenditures on blockchain increased over the past year.

Deal flow reflects the shift, as 46 distinct Web3 projects announced by Fortune 100 companies across the last three quarters, tying historical highs despite broader macro uncertainty.

ETF demand anchors allocations

Institutional investors have matched corporate momentum with direct market exposure. The ten largest spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) absorbed $50 billion in cumulative inflows, twice the first-year haul of the best-selling traditional ETFs.

Ethereum (ETH) funds added $3.5 billion during their first quarter on the market, outpacing historical peers on both assets under management and the number of institutional holders.

Survey data in the report shows that 83% of institutional investors plan to raise their crypto positions this year. In comparison, 59% intend to allocate more than 5% of their assets under management to the sector.

Diversification is also broadening, with 73% already holding tokens beyond BTC and ETH, and 76% expect to invest in tokenized real-world assets by 2026.

Asset managers cite product availability and liquidity depth as catalysts. Bitcoin ETFs settled into regular daily turnover that rivals long-established equity funds, easing execution for pension plans and insurers that must trade at scale.

Meanwhile, the growth of treasury-backed stablecoins and a $21 billion tokenized bond market provide fixed-income desks with additional instruments that align with existing mandates.

Convergence of corporate usage and capital flows

The parallel rise in enterprise blockchain deployment and portfolio allocation suggests a feedback loop in which corporate projects generate on-chain volume and data, thereby improving market transparency.

At the same time, institutional inflows deepen liquidity and encourage vendors to build compliant infrastructure.

Coinbase’s research positions regulatory clarity as the hinge connecting the two trends. Nine in ten Fortune 500 executives and three in five investors rank clear federal rules as the primary driver for further commitments.

For now, executives continue to budget for on-chain pilots and asset managers funnel new funds into crypto-linked vehicles, marking a period in which operational adoption and balance sheet exposure advance in tandem.

Source: Cryptoslate

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Manuel

Commodity

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry.

The new package proposes banning transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention.

"Russia's goal is not peace. It is to impose the rule of might ... strength is the only language that Russia will understand," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a press conference.

The Commission proposes adding 22 more Russian banks to its list and broadening restrictions on them beyond a removal from SWIFT, a global financial messaging system, to a full transaction ban. It also proposes expanding the scope to banks from third countries, and lists the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) as well as its subsidiaries and wider network.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of the RDIF, said von der Leyen's statements reflected "the EU's desire to prolong the conflict in Ukraine and its strong dissatisfaction with RDIF's efforts to restore relations between Russia and the United States".

He said in a statement that the RDIF was also actively supporting European companies that have a presence in Russia.

The Commission has also proposed lowering the Group of Seven nations (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil to $45 a barrel, from $60 a barrel, in a bid to cut Russia's energy revenues.

Von der Leyen said that the oil price cap will be discussed at a G7 leaders meeting in Canada next week.

"My assumption is that we do that together as the G7. We started that as G7, it was successful as a measure from the G7, and I want to continue this measure as G7," she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the EU sanctions package, but said more detail was required and called for a lowering of the oil price cap to $30.

"Russia's ability to continue the war is tantamount to its ability to sell oil and bypass financial barriers," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "That is why it is necessary to restrict to the maximum the Russian tanker fleet, their technological capabilities for extraction and processing and do everything so that the price of Russian oil is lower than they can withstand."

"Each of our partners knows what price cap is needed - $30, no higher. Such a price level will mean real pressure on Russia."

The proposal also lists more vessels that make up Russia's shadow fleet, taking the total to more than 400 ships, and oil trading companies. The Commission has also proposed a ban on imports of refined products produced from Russian oil.

"In this way, we want to prevent that some of the Russian crude oil reaches the EU market through the back door," von der Leyen said.

EU countries will start debating the proposal this week.

Source: Reuters

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Devin

Central Bank

President Donald Trump said Friday he would name a successor “very soon” to replace Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May 2026. The small list of candidates under consideration has included Kevin Warsh, a former Fed official whom Trump interviewed for the Treasury secretary role in November, according to people familiar with the matter.

But Bessent — who is leading Trump’s effort to kickstart the US economy with sweeping changes to trade, taxes and regulation — is also now one of the contenders for the job, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. Formal interviews for the position have not begun, two of the people said.

“I have the best job in Washington,” Bessent said in response to a request for comment. “The president will decide who’s best for the economy and the American people.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

As Treasury chief, Bessent would traditionally play a key role in the search and interview process for the next Fed chair. It’s unclear if he would recuse himself as Trump begins to make his decision.

“Given the amount of trust and confidence that the global financial community has in Scott Bessent, he’s an obvious candidate,” said Tim Adams, president and CEO of the Institute of International Finance. “He’s a dark horse candidate,” Adams said, adding that Warsh — who served as a governor on the Fed board from 2006 to 2011 — would also be a good choice.

Asked specifically about Warsh on Friday, Trump said: “He’s very highly thought of.”

Bessent has been at the forefront of negotiations on a US-China trade deal, arguably the most important of the pacts the president is seeking to forge as part of his effort to reshape the global trade landscape.

“Scott Bessent proved he could implement President Trump’s agenda during an incredibly turbulent first six months,” said Steve Bannon, former chief White House strategist and outside adviser to the president. “He’s not just the star of the cabinet, but a safe pair of hands for global capital markets.”

Source: Yahoo Finance

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Adam

Economic

Quantum advantage underpins the valuation of quantum stocks. By replacing bits (0s or 1s) with qubits, which can be simultaneously 0s and 1s, quantum computers could leapfrog the performance of even the most powerful classical supercomputer. In turn, simulating the physical world at exponential speedups of either molecules or complex human systems could push the envelope of productivity.

A year ago, Boston Consulting Group (BSG) forecasted that a broad quantum advantage between 2030 and 2040 could bring $90-$170 billion annual value in operating income. With unpredictable AI advances, this may even be accelerated.

After all, quantum computing has many hurdles yet to be solved. Foremost, error-correction techniques have to scale and overcome the interaction of qubits with the environment, leading to decoherence. To that end, on the software side, quantum algorithms have to interfere to amplify correct outputs.

For investors, the revolutionary quantum potential makes for even greater speculative exposure than AI, owing to quantum uncertainty, but also with clear milestones to watch for.

Here are the top three quantum stocks, showing the greatest potential long-term.

IonQ, Inc.

Year-to-date, IONQ (NYSE:IONQ) stock is down nearly 7% to the $40 price range per share. However, over the last three months, IONQ shares surged by 100%. Most recently on Monday, the company announced the acquisition of UK-based Oxford Ionics for $1.075 billion. Ionics specializes in ion-trap technology.

This is key to scaling quantum computers as holding qubits in electric fields results in higher qubit fidelity, which translates to practical quantum operations. More importantly for scaling purposes, Ionics built ion-trapping on standard semiconductor chips, making it scalable beyond niche research labs.

The month prior, IonQ also made a strategic move to acquire Lightsynq, notable for its efforts to build the first-ever quantum memory to interlink quantum computers. Interestingly, former Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services (AWS) pioneers for Quantum Networking, Bhaskar, Machielse, and Levonian, are heading Lightsynq to overcome quantum scaling bottlenecks.

In short, IonQ is steadily building a full-stack quantum tech, just as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) did for AI. IonQ and Nvidia have had a collaborative relationship since 2023 to utilize CUDA-Q platform. Likewise, the company also provides its hardware for Microsoft’s Azure and AWS. For data centers, IonQ deployed the Forte Enterprise hybrid system, powered by 36 qubits and with a 1-qubit gate error of 0.02%.

For its most advanced quantum advantage system in the commercial arena, IonQ is building Tempo with 100 qubits and with “more available, useful computational states than any computer in history.”

After the buzz from these acquisitions, however, the IONQ price target is in line with the current price of $40 per share, according to WSJ’s forecasting. The bottom expectation is $30, while the top price target for IONQ stock is $50. Once again, this is a reminder for investors that quantum exposure is a long-term game.

D-Wave Quantum Inc

Since our last deep coverage of D Wave Quantum (NYSE:QBTS) in late May, the company remains one of the top choices for quantum exposure. Other than the availability of Advantage2 quantum computer, which increased coherence by 2x, there have been no new milestones since then.

As a direct competitor to IonQ, D-Wave also adopted a hybrid system approach for practical use-case scenarios and quantum applications for enterprises via its Leap cloud infrastructure. On the financial front, the company’s cash balance as of Q1 2025, at $304.3 million, is half that of IonQ’s $697.1 million.

Advantage2’s 4,400 qubits, within the annealing approach as opposed to IonQ’s gate model, are more suited for large-scale optimization tasks than universal quantum computations. Although competitive, this makes IonQ and D-Wave complementary, making QBTS stock a solid exposure as the leading quantum annealing company.

Year-to-date, QBTS shares are up 92%, having surged 265% over the last three months, and are presently priced at around $18 per share. The average QBTS price target is significantly under the current price level, at $12.83. The bottom outlook is $12, while the top is $14 per share.

International Business Machines Corporation

Of the three quantum stocks, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) is one of the safest exposures, but still lacks the heavy market weight of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). This allows for more growth compared to new quantum milestones. And just as in AI, IBM has a cutting-edge research and development division in quantum computing.

For scalability, IBM Quantum System Two represents a modular approach featuring parallel executions, composed of the company’s latest 156-qubit Heron processors. Heron can run up to 5,000 2-qubit gate operations. In May, the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) was the latest in line to announce Heron’s deployment, upgrading the existing IBM Quantum System One.

By 2027, IBM plans to scale quantum operations by enabling the running of 10,000 gates. Perhaps most importantly for enterprises and practical use, IBM’s open-source Qiskit stack offers a standardized and versatile framework for programming and running quantum algorithms.

This ranges from libraries for quantum functions, APIs, and error reduction to optimal resource allocations for QPUs. From 2030 onward, IBM’s quantum roadmap includes a distributed 100,000-qubit Blue Jay system capable of running 1 billion gates. Suffice it to say, if one were to look for the most comprehensive quantum exposure with a solid track record, it would be IBM.

Currently priced at $271, the average IBM price target is $254.81 per share. The bottom forecast is $170 while the ceiling price for IBM stock is $300. Year-to-date, IBM stock is up nearly 24%, as the company mainly generates revenue from cloud, software, and business services.

Source: investing

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Adam

Economic

Bond

Investors betting that yields on long-dated US Treasuries will keep rising faster than those on shorter notes risk getting burned, according to BNP Paribas SA.

Guneet Dhingra, the New York-based head of US rates strategy at the French bank, said 30-year Treasuries already price in the worsening fiscal picture and could rebound if there’s strong demand for an auction or deficit fears ease. He sees a case for buying the bonds at current levels.

Dhingra’s view goes against that of big investment firms including DoubleLine Capital and Pacific Investment Management, which have been steering away from the longest-dated US government bonds in favor of shorter maturities — a strategy known as steepener trade.

“Steepeners are big, but not as beautiful,” Dhingra said in an interview. That could be “a pain trade in the current market set up.”

BNP Paribas analysis shows market bias to bet on curve steepeners is the highest in at least a decade, signaling the trade is overly crowded.

US long-dated yields have been marching higher since early April amid concerns about the widening budget deficit and simmering trade tensions. Meanwhile, the prospect of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts as the economy cools has helped to anchor the short-end.

The 30-year US yield hit a peak of 5.15% on May 22, the highest since 2023. While it’s since retreated to around 4.92% on Tuesday, markets remain on edge ahead of a $22 billion 30-year auction scheduled for Thursday.

“Every auction now feels like a risk event,” Dhingra said. “A good auction is probably par for the course, but a weak auction really sets the cat among the pigeons in terms of how are investors going to rethink the US fiscal situation.”

He noted that contrary to perceptions, demand at 10- and 30-year bond auctions since President Donald Trump’s early-April tariff announcements has actually been decent. Foreign demand has been in line with long-term averages, Dhingra said, a fact that counters fears overseas buyers are shunning US debt.

The French bank is recommending a trade, based on options, that will profit if long-dated interest rates outperform amid a broader decline in rates.

“I’m not saying the theme of fiscal concerns has gone away,” he said. But “a lot of the skepticism and concern is in the price.”

source : Bloomberg

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Devin

Economic

The share of global emissions covered by carbon taxes and emissions trading systems reached 28% in 2024, compared to 24% the previous year, the bank's annual State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report showed.

The increase was driven by the expansion of China's ETS to industrial sectors. Economies representing nearly two-thirds of global economic output, including around half of global emissions from the power and industrial sectors, are now covered by a carbon price. Coverage in other sectors is lower, with agricultural emissions not yet priced.

Government revenues from carbon pricing mechanisms such as carbon taxes and emission trading schemes dropped to $102 billion in 2024, down 1.9% compared to $104 billion the previous year, according to the report.

"Carbon pricing remains a powerful tool for advancing multiple policy goals," said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank senior managing director. "It helps countries cut emissions, raise domestic revenues in tight fiscal environments, and stimulate green growth and job creation."

The annual revenue drop was largely due to lower prices in large ETSs such as those of the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Over half of this revenue was used towards environment, infrastructure, and development projects, slightly increasing compared to previous years.

Last year's carbon revenues were derived from 80 carbon pricing schemes worldwide. Total carbon instruments in operation increased by five compared to 2023.

The report showed that all large middle-income economies have now either implemented or are considering direct carbon pricing, with ETSs accounting for most of the new and planned instruments.

"We've seen a number of important developments over the past 12 months, including the establishment of new taxes in Israel and subnational Mexican states, new ETSs in subnational US jurisdictions," said Joesph Pryor, senior climate change specialist at the World Bank, during the launch event of the report at the Innovate4Climate conference in Seville, Spain June 10.

"But we've also seen the removal of carbon taxes in various jurisdictions, most importantly, in Canada, the removal of the Canadian Federal fuel charter. We've also seen a number of developments that won't actually appear on the map. The passage of legislation in Brazil that establishes its ETS will commence in the next five years. We've also seen regulations in India that would make way for a rate-based emissions trading system, and legislation in Tokyo has been proposed establishing an overarching climate framework, which would make way for its emissions trading system," said Pryor.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed EU Allowances for December 2025 at Eur74.07/mtCO2e ($84.61/mtCO2e) June 9.

Compliance demand supports credit retirements

Retirements of carbon credits in 2024 increased three times compared to 2023 levels, largely driven by companies looking to meet their multiyear compliance obligations under the California and Quebec ETSs.

Retirements for compliance purposes represented 24% of total credit retirements in 2024, compared to only 9% in 2023.

Meanwhile, growth from voluntary buyers has been negligible. Credit prices continue to vary across credit types, with nature-based removal credits attracting a premium relative to other types of projects, said the World Bank.

Retirements for voluntary purposes represented 76% of the total share in 2024, down from 91% the year before. Demand shifted towards nature-based removals and clean cooking projects, the report showed.

Global credit supply declined slightly, but the pool of unretired carbon credits from independent crediting mechanisms increased to almost 1 billion mt.

Most of these unretired credits are relatively older vintages, issued before 2022, and are from forestry and land use or renewable energy projects.

"We saw that there was an increase in demand for compliance purposes," said Pryor at the Innovate4Climate launch event. "We see an increasing pool of unretired credit globally and, while unclear, a potential reluctance for market participants to use these legacy credits."

Over 10% of total global credit issuance emanated from governmental crediting mechanisms, such as the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme and the Kazakhstan Crediting Mechanism.

While credit prices dropped in 2024, specific project types, such as nature-based removals, carried premiums and high forward prices over other credits available in the market.

A positive correlation is also emerging between prices and carbon credit ratings from proprietary ratings providers, the report further showed.

Furthermore, credits eligible for use in international compliance markets command a price premium compared to credits eligible for use in voluntary markets.

Platts assesses a wide range of voluntary carbon credits that demonstrate additionality, permanence, exclusive claim, and co-benefits.

The value of these credits can vary from nature-based avoidance credits (Platts Nature-Based Avoidance Southeast Asia at $6.45/mtCO2e; Platts Nature-Based Avoidance South America at $5.80) to natural carbon capture (Platts Natural Carbon Capture at $14.90/mtCO2e) and tech carbon capture credits (Biochar US at $140/mtCO2e, Biochar India at $145), Commodity Insights data showed June 9.

Source: S&P Global Platts

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Adam

Stocks

The surging shares of CoreWeave Inc. and Palantir Technologies Inc. are drawing comparisons to meme stocks — whose rapid gains are fueled by retail trader fervor more than financial performance.

CoreWeave has nearly quadrupled since its heavily downsized initial public offering in March. Palantir is up more than 460% over the past year. Investors may hope that the shares will perform like Nvidia Corp., whose stock soared at the start of the artificial intelligence era. The risk is that they act more like retailer GameStop Corp. — now 66% below a 2021 peak.

“Investors are ignoring fundamentals just to jump on the trend, and if you stretch a rubber band, the snapback can be substantial,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers Group. “You need fresh money to reinforce the trend, otherwise the moves aren’t sustainable.”

Shares of CoreWeave fell 5.8% on Tuesday while Palantir slipped 0.4%.

Hints of such risks came last week, when cloud-computing provider CoreWeave tumbled 17% out of the blue, its biggest one-day drop on record. The shares since recovered and neared a fresh high on Monday.

CoreWeave and Palantir are among this year’s best-performing stocks amid a resurgence of the AI trade as tech giants continue to spend heavily on computing infrastructure. CoreWeave rents cloud-computing capacity and counts Microsoft Corp. as one of its biggest customers. Palantir makes data analysis software used by governments and commercial customers.

Representatives for CoreWeave and Palantir did not immediately respond to Bloomberg News requests for comment.

In contrast to GameStop, a video-game retailer that faced real challenges during the pandemic, both are clearly benefiting from strong demand for their services. CoreWeave’s revenue is expected to more than double this year, according to the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Palantir’s is projected to increase by 36%, aided by brisk sales of its AI offerings.

The problem is whether investors are over-paying for that growth. Palantir trades at 71 times estimated sales, making it by far the most expensive stock in the S&P 500. CoreWeave, which had a net loss of $315 million in the first quarter, is priced at 10 times projected sales. The average in the S&P 500 is around 3 times.

However, those high-flying valuations have been little deterrence for retail investors, who are piling into the names.

Data from Interactive Brokers show Palantir and CoreWeave are among the most active stocks by client orders, a sign of heavy retail interest. While that list leads with more familiar favorites like Nvidia and Tesla Inc., it is also heavy with riskier plays like leveraged exchange-traded funds and the quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum Inc., which has jumped 161% from a May low.

Vanda Research, which analyzes trends in both retail trading and sentiment, has also observed rising activity from the retail crowd, especially in more speculative stocks.

“Mom-and-pop traders appear increasingly comfortable venturing into higher-beta plays, from small caps to second-derivative AI themes,” wrote Marco Iachini, senior vice president of research, in a note published last week. “Sentiment appears overwhelmingly positive for those with strong recent momentum or AI exposure.”

Of course, bulls have plenty they can point to for the rallies. Nvidia, one of the world’s most influential companies, revealed it had a bigger-than-expected stake in CoreWeave last month. CoreWeave also expanded a deal with OpenAI and entered into two lease agreements with Applied Digital Corp.

Palantir has delivered strong revenue forecasts in recent quarters and is reportedly winning more US government contracts from the Trump administration.

Still, investors have been burned by these kinds of AI trades before. Super Micro Computer Inc. more than quadrupled last year before a selloff that erased more than 80% of its value amid accounting problems. BigBear.ai Holdings Inc. and SoundHound AI Inc. also experienced sharp rallies in recent months on heavy volume that were followed by reversals.

“Clearly meme investing is back, but you’re playing with fire if you try to trade stocks like these,” said Gene Munster, co-founder and managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “That’s why we won’t own something like CoreWeave. It is so way, way overvalued that there’s no way we could be comfortable in it.”