Starcloud, an Nvidia-backed orbital data center startup, said it will start mining Bitcoin from space later this year when its second spacecraft is launched, positioning it to become the first company to mine Bitcoin off Earth.

Starcloud “will be the first to mine Bitcoin in space,” the startup’s CEO, Philip Johnston, posted to X on Saturday after revealing its Bitcoin mining ambitions in space in an interview with HyperChange on Thursday.

In the interview, Johnston said running Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners would be “one of the most compelling use cases” of space compute due to it being significantly cheaper than GPUs.

“GPUs are about 30 times more expensive per kilowatt or per watt than ASICs,” Johnston said. “A 1-kilowatt B200 chip, it might cost $30,000. A 1-kilowatt ASIC is like $1,000.”

In the X post, Johnston said Bitcoin mining in space will become a “massive industry” due to how much more economical it is than mining the cryptocurrency on Earth.

“Bitcoin mining consumes about 20 GW of power continuously. It makes no sense to do this on Earth, and in the end state, all of this will be done in space.”

Starcloud was founded in early 2024 to build data centers in space as a solution to address rising energy needs for AI. In November, it launched a satellite with an NVIDIA H100 into orbit, marking the first time a GPU that powerful has ever operated in space.

Its data centers, which comprise around 88,000 satellites, are primarily powered by solar energy.

Sending Bitcoin to Mars

While Johnston’s Starcloud envisions mining Bitcoin in space, tech entrepreneurs Jose E. Puente and Carlos Puente last year came up with a solution to send it across planets.

In September, Puente told Cointelegraph that it is theoretically possible to send Bitcoin to Mars in as fast as three minutes by leveraging an optical link from NASA or Starlink and a new interplanetary timestamping system.

While someone would need to be there to receive it, the Bitcoin transaction would move through space stations — such as antennas and satellites — or even a relay around the Moon before reaching Mars.

They, however, said that mining Bitcoin on Mars would not be feasible due to the latency between the two planets.

In a groundbreaking move, Western Union is set to launch USDPT, a stablecoin anchored to the U.S. dollar, on the Solana blockchain network. This initiative will facilitate cash redemption at more than 360,000 physical locations worldwide, marking Western Union’s significant step into the realm of digital assets while bridging the gap between blockchain technology and global financial accessibility.

Why Was Solana Chosen for USDPT?

Solana is known for its high-performance blockchain capabilities, making it an ideal platform for Western Union’s digital currency endeavors. With its ability to support fast and cost-effective transactions, Solana is well-suited for the large-scale payment operations that Western Union is planning with the USDPT stablecoin. This development will allow users to manage digital dollars effectively while leveraging Western Union’s extensive payout infrastructure globally.

How Will Crossmint Support This Initiative?

Crossmint, a key player in stablecoin infrastructure, is collaborating with Western Union to provide integral wallet and payment APIs. This partnership is crucial for embedding USDPT into Western Union’s Digital Asset Network. Established in 2022, Crossmint is recognized for its expertise in developing blockchain solutions, and its collaboration with Western Union aims to enhance accessibility to digital payments for millions of users through seamless connections to the existing retail network.

Malcolm Clarke, Vice President of Digital Assets at Western Union, emphasized that the Digital Asset Network aims to merge on-chain value with Western Union’s global cash systems, ensuring users have the flexibility of both digital assets and physical cash.

In a groundbreaking move, Western Union is set to launch USDPT, a stablecoin anchored to the U.S. dollar, on the Solana blockchain network. This initiative will facilitate cash redemption at more than 360,000 physical locations worldwide, marking Western Union’s significant step into the realm of digital assets while bridging the gap between blockchain technology and global financial accessibility.

Why Was Solana Chosen for USDPT?

Solana is known for its high-performance blockchain capabilities, making it an ideal platform for Western Union’s digital currency endeavors. With its ability to support fast and cost-effective transactions, Solana is well-suited for the large-scale payment operations that Western Union is planning with the USDPT stablecoin. This development will allow users to manage digital dollars effectively while leveraging Western Union’s extensive payout infrastructure globally.

How Will Crossmint Support This Initiative?

Crossmint, a key player in stablecoin infrastructure, is collaborating with Western Union to provide integral wallet and payment APIs. This partnership is crucial for embedding USDPT into Western Union’s Digital Asset Network. Established in 2022, Crossmint is recognized for its expertise in developing blockchain solutions, and its collaboration with Western Union aims to enhance accessibility to digital payments for millions of users through seamless connections to the existing retail network.

Malcolm Clarke, Vice President of Digital Assets at Western Union, emphasized that the Digital Asset Network aims to merge on-chain value with Western Union’s global cash systems, ensuring users have the flexibility of both digital assets and physical cash.

“Our Digital Asset Network is built to seamlessly connect digital value with the world’s largest cash and payout ecosystem, providing people with options across both digital and traditional finance channels,” stated Western Union’s Vice President of Digital Assets.

Who Will Hold the Bitcoin for Morgan Stanley’s ETF?

Morgan Stanley has named Bank of New York Mellon and Coinbase as custodians for its planned Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing shows that both firms will safeguard the Bitcoin held by the ETF. Most of the assets will be stored in cold wallets — offline systems used to secure private keys — while a smaller portion may be transferred to internet-connected hot wallets to support the fund’s creation and redemption process.

“The Bitcoin custodians are chartered as a New York state bank, in the case of BNY, and as a New York state limited liability trust company, in the case of Coinbase custodian,” the filing states. “The Bitcoin custodians provide custody and trade execution services for digital assets.”

Morgan Stanley submitted applications in January for spot ETFs tied to Bitcoin and Solana. Both funds are structured as passive vehicles designed to track the price of the underlying assets rather than actively trade them.

Why Is Morgan Stanley Launching a Bitcoin ETF Now?

The move comes nearly two years after the first spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in the United States. Although the market experienced volatility, institutional interest in regulated crypto investment products remains active.

Bitcoin is still trading well below its previous peak, down roughly 42% from its all-time high of about $126,000. Even so, ETF flows have turned positive again in recent weeks after a prolonged period of withdrawals.

Data from recent trading sessions show renewed inflows across the category. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF recorded about $322 million in inflows in a single day, offsetting redemptions from competing funds including products from Fidelity and Grayscale.

Overall, the sector has recorded roughly $683.3 million in inflows this week, following $787.3 million in the previous week. That marked the first positive weekly flow after five consecutive weeks of withdrawals that totaled close to $4 billion.

What Does the ETF Mean for Morgan Stanley’s Crypto Strategy?

Industry observers say the ETF helps strengthen Morgan Stanley’s presence in digital assets even if the fund itself does not reach the scale of the largest products already in the market.

Jeff Park, an advisor to asset manager Bitwise, said the launch will reinforce the bank’s position in crypto infrastructure while opening doors for future business tied to tokenized assets.

During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this year, chairman and CEO Ted Pick told analysts that Morgan Stanley is “well positioned now in the crypto and tokenized asset space,” adding that “there is a lot for us to do there.”

Beyond the ETF itself, Park noted that entering the market allows Morgan Stanley to attract talent with experience in blockchain markets and digital-asset trading. That could support future projects tied to tokenized real-world assets and other blockchain-based financial products.

What Could This Mean for the ETF Market?

Morgan Stanley’s entry into the spot Bitcoin ETF market arrives after the category already attracted billions of dollars in investor flows since its launch in the United States. Large asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity currently dominate the sector with funds that quickly built scale.

Even if Morgan Stanley’s fund does not rival the largest products in assets under management, its arrival broadens the range of financial institutions offering crypto exposure through regulated vehicles.

For the broader digital-asset market, each additional ETF sponsor expands distribution channels and investor access. Park said that trend suggests the potential market for crypto products may be larger than even many industry participants initially expected.

“It means the market is much bigger than even crypto professionals anticipated, especially to reach new customers,” he said.

Visa and Stripe-owned stablecoin platform Bridge announced an expansion of their stablecoin-linked card program from 18 countries to over 100 by end of 2026, enabling users to spend stablecoin balances at Visa’s 175 million merchant locations worldwide without converting to fiat first.

What the Program Does

A user holds stablecoins in a wallet. They use a Bridge-powered Visa card at any merchant. The transaction settles in real time, the stablecoin converts at the point of sale, and the merchant receives local currency as normal. No manual fund transfer needed.

That removes the friction that made crypto spending impractical. Previous programs required pre-loading a separate card balance. Bridge eliminates that step entirely.

On-chain settlement through Lead Bank runs backend reconciliation on blockchain rails rather than traditional card settlement. Faster for Bridge, cheaper for the ecosystem, invisible to the merchant and user. The settlement infrastructure change is actually more structurally significant than the user-facing feature.

Who Is Already Using It

Phantom and MetaMask are already using Bridge’s API to issue branded stablecoin debit cards. Phantom is the primary Solana wallet. MetaMask is the primary Ethereum wallet. Between them, they cover the two largest DeFi ecosystems by active user count.

When the wallets users already hold stablecoins in start issuing cards that let them spend directly, the conversion rate is much higher than any standalone app. The Bridge API model means any stablecoin wallet developer can integrate card functionality without building payment infrastructure from scratch.

The Geographic Logic

The program launched in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico: high inflation, currency controls, limited dollar banking access. The 100-country expansion adds Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East, covering different user profiles from developed banking markets to mobile-first emerging economies with limited traditional financial access.

Visa’s existing network relationships and compliance infrastructure are what makes the 2026 timeline plausible. Bridge is using Visa’s market access rather than building its own.

The Disruption Paradox

Visa shares dipped 1.2% in premarket. The market sees the tension that Visa’s crypto head Cuy Sheffield acknowledged: stablecoin wallets need a card to spend value in the real world. Visa is providing that card.

By being the bridge between stablecoin wallets and merchant acceptance, Visa maintains its position in the payment stack. But it also validates stablecoin spending as real behavior, which could accelerate direct stablecoin payment rails that bypass Visa entirely.

The SoFi-Mastercard partnership covered earlier this week is the same logic from Mastercard’s side. Both major card networks are embedding themselves into stablecoin infrastructure rather than fighting it. Whether that strategy captures the transition or just delays displacement depends on how quickly fully on-chain merchant acceptance develops without card intermediaries.

In a move underscoring deepening institutional conviction, cryptocurrency investment firm Bitmine executed a massive $98.6 million Ethereum acquisition last week, significantly expanding its already colossal digital asset treasury. According to on-chain analytics reported by Lookonchain on social media platform X, the firm purchased 50,928 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 4.47 million ETH, a position now valued at approximately $8.66 billion. This strategic accumulation occurs amidst a pivotal period for the Ethereum network and broader digital asset markets, prompting analysis from sector experts.

Bitmine’s Ethereum Purchase: A Deep Dive into the Numbers

The transaction, verified through public blockchain data, represents a continuation of Bitmine’s long-term accumulation strategy. Consequently, the firm’s latest purchase adds substantial weight to its existing portfolio. To illustrate the scale, the 50,928 ETH acquired is equivalent to nearly a full epoch of Ethereum validator entries. For context, the purchase was executed over several transactions, likely to minimize market impact, a common tactic for large-scale institutional buyers. Furthermore, this activity coincides with a period of relative price consolidation for Ethereum, suggesting a value-based investment approach rather than speculative momentum chasing.

Bitmine’s total holdings of 4.47 million ETH now represent a significant portion of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. This scale grants the firm considerable influence within the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly regarding network governance and staking dynamics. Moreover, the firm’s actions are closely monitored as a bellwether for institutional sentiment. The decision to deploy nearly $100 million in a single week sends a powerful signal about perceived long-term value. Analysts immediately began assessing the potential market implications of such a concentrated position.

Institutional Strategy and Ethereum’s Evolving Landscape

Bitmine’s purchase is not an isolated event but part of a broader trend of institutional capital entering the cryptocurrency space. However, the firm’s focus on Ethereum is particularly noteworthy. The Ethereum network recently completed its transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, fundamentally altering its investment thesis. This upgrade, known as “The Merge,” reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by over 99%, addressing a major concern for traditional finance entities. Subsequently, Ethereum now offers a native staking yield, transforming it from a pure speculative asset into a yield-generating one.

Bitmine's Stunning $98.6 Million Ethereum Purchase Signals Major Institutional Confidence

For a firm like Bitmine, this creates a dual investment proposition: potential capital appreciation and a steady staking reward stream. The firm’s massive holdings could generate substantial annual yield, which may be reinvested or used to fund operations. Additionally, ongoing network upgrades, often called “Ethereum 2.0” or the “Surge,” aim to drastically improve scalability and reduce transaction fees. Therefore, institutions are potentially positioning themselves ahead of these technical improvements, which could drive broader adoption and increased demand for ETH.

Expert Analysis on Whale Accumulation Patterns

Market analysts and blockchain researchers provide critical context for understanding these large transactions. On-chain data firms like Glassnode and CryptoQuant consistently track wallet movements of large holders, often called “whales.” Their data reveals that accumulation by large entities often precedes periods of increased network activity or price discovery. However, experts caution that correlation does not equal causation. The sheer size of Bitmine’s position means its trading activity can materially affect market liquidity. Consequently, the firm likely employs sophisticated treasury management and execution algorithms to mitigate slippage.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and co-founder Reeve Collins have outlined a vision in which autonomous AI agents become the dominant users of stablecoin infrastructure, arguing that traditional banking systems are structurally incapable of serving non-human entities and that USDT and Bitcoin will fill that gap by default.

The Core Argument

The reasoning Ardoino and Collins have presented is grounded in a practical observation about how banking works. Traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan require account holders to be legal entities or individuals who can satisfy KYC requirements, sign contracts, and be held accountable under existing legal frameworks. An autonomous AI agent cannot do any of those things. It has no legal personhood, no identity documents, and no human representative capable of assuming liability on its behalf.

That structural incompatibility means that as AI agents proliferate and begin requiring financial infrastructure to operate, they will not be able to access traditional banking rails. Stablecoins on permissionless blockchains, by contrast, require nothing beyond a wallet address to send and receive value. The account opens itself. No approval needed.

The operational requirements of AI agents compound the argument. These systems run continuously, execute at machine speed, and need to make micropayments for compute power, data access, and API services in real time. Traditional finance operates on business hours, settlement delays, and transaction minimums that are architecturally incompatible with those requirements. Blockchain infrastructure, running 24 hours a day at high throughput, is not.

What Tether Is Building

The strategic response to this thesis is visible in the infrastructure Tether has been developing and investing in across recent months.

The Wallet Development Kit, launched as an open-source modular framework, was built specifically for what Tether describes as “people, machines, and AI agents.” It enables the creation of non-custodial wallets that can be embedded into any software or device, which means an AI agent could instantiate its own wallet as part of its deployment without any human involvement in the setup process.

On February 25th, Tether invested $200 million in Whop, a digital marketplace platform, with a stated goal of implementing AI tools that enable what the company calls agentic income opportunities. The framing is notable. Rather than positioning AI agents purely as cost centers consuming compute and API services, the Whop investment suggests Tether is building toward a model where agents also generate income autonomously.

Earlier in February, Tether invested in LayerZero Labs to support USDt0, its omnichain stablecoin designed to operate seamlessly across multiple blockchains without liquidity fragmentation. For AI agents moving value across different networks as part of their operations, that kind of cross-chain interoperability is not a convenience feature. It is a basic operational requirement.

The Risk Ardoino Is Also Flagging

Tether’s leadership has not presented this vision without caveats. Ardoino has publicly warned about what he describes as a bitcoin AI risk for 2026, specifically the possibility that a bursting AI stock bubble could create risk-off conditions across financial markets that temporarily drag down digital asset prices alongside equities.

The warning is worth taking seriously precisely because it comes from someone with a strong financial interest in the bull case for both Bitcoin and stablecoins. Ardoino is not dismissing the technology. He is acknowledging that valuation excess in AI-adjacent equities could produce a correction that sweeps crypto into the same risk-off move regardless of the underlying fundamentals.

The Scale of the Prediction

Industry observers and Tether executives have put a number on the long-term vision: one trillion AI agents using self-custodial wallets and stablecoins within fifteen years. That figure is more illustrative than precise, but the direction it points is clear. If even a fraction of that adoption materializes, the demand for stablecoin infrastructure at machine scale would represent a structural shift in what USDT is used for and who, or what, is using it.

The financial system was not designed for non-human participants. Tether is building on the assumption that it will need to be.

Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $68.1 billion for the period ended Jan. 25, 2026, up 73% year over year and 20% sequentially.

Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue climbed 65% to $215.9 billion, while GAAP gross margins hit 75% in the quarter.

“Computing demand is growing exponentially — the agentic AI inflection point has arrived,” said Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, calling its AI data center platform Grace Blackwell “the king of inference” and pointing to even lower cost per token with the upcoming Vera Rubin platform.

Yet while AI investors cheered, the blockbuster earnings failed to lift crypto mining stocks.

Why Nvidia earnings move crypto miners

Crypto miners tend to move with, or sometimes against, Nvidia. This is because AI and Bitcoin mining run on the same raw ingredients.

High-performance chips, enormous amounts of electricity, and warehouse-sized data centers.

So when Nvidia posts monster earnings and talks about “exponential” computing demand, that’s not just an AI story. It’s a power-and-hardware story.

Strong results and bullish guidance signal that hyperscalers are scrambling for GPUs and locking in energy capacity. That can mean tighter chip supply and fiercer competition for electricity, neither of which is great news for Bitcoin miners trying to protect their margins.

During the earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang rightly pointed out that “compute equals revenues."

AI factories are scaling fast, and the biggest tech companies are racing to secure as much capacity as they can. Nvidia just returned $41.1 billion to shareholders in fiscal 2026 and still has $58.5 billion authorized for buybacks.

This is a reminder of how much cash this AI cycle is throwing off.

Meanwhile, many Bitcoin miners are also expanding their business strategy to include AI or making a complete pivot to AI. Their biggest concern is that the returns of mining activities are no longer sustainable.

Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, driven by rapid growth in its USDC stablecoin business and expanding payments operations, underscoring continued momentum in an otherwise challenging crypto market.

For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2025, Circle posted revenue of $770 million, a 77% increase from a year earlier, and reported net income of $133.4 million, or 43 cents per share. Analysts expected per-share earnings of 16 cents on revenue of $747 million.

The strong quarter was fueled in part by a 72% year-on-year increase in the circulation of Circle’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDC (USDC), which reached about $75.3 billion by year-end.

For the full year 2025, Circle reported revenue of $2.7 billion, up 64% from the prior year. The company recorded a net loss of $70 million for the year, largely due to $424 million in stock-based compensation tied to its 2025 initial public offering (IPO).

Despite the annual loss, operating income was positive at about $157 million, reflecting solid underlying performance.

Circle’s shares surged on the news, rising more than 20% in early trading Wednesday morning, to nearly $74.

Arc rollout and policy tailwinds bolster Circle’s expansion

Circle highlighted several operational milestones during the quarter, including the public testnet launch of Arc, its new blockchain infrastructure platform designed to help institutions build tokenized financial applications. More than 100 institutional participants have joined the testnet, the company said.

The Circle Payments Network, a cross-border payments coordination layer enabling banks to settle transactions using stablecoins, expanded to 55 financial institutions, with additional companies undergoing eligibility review and onboarding.

While Circle is best known for issuing USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, its euro-denominated stablecoin, EURC, also posted strong growth. EURC circulation reached 310 million euros ($365 million), up 284% year over year.

Circle has also benefited from a more favorable regulatory backdrop in the United States under President Donald Trump’s administration, including the passage of the GENIUS Act, which establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins and issuer oversight.

However, broader industry momentum has faced hurdles. As The Wall Street Journal reported, progress on a separate market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act has stalled amid ongoing tensions between crypto industry advocates and banking groups over issues including stablecoin yield and reward mechanisms.

The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking a portion of its treasury holdings, marking a notable shift in how the organization manages its ETH reserves and participates in the network’s proof-of-stake system.

According to the Foundation, approximately 70,000 ETH has been allocated for staking, with an initial tranche already deposited into validator infrastructure.

The move allows the nonprofit to earn staking rewards while contributing directly to the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network.

Under Ethereum’s proof-of-stake model, validators lock up ETH to help process transactions and secure the blockchain in exchange for yield.

By staking part of its treasury, the Foundation is effectively turning dormant reserves into productive capital. The rewards generated will flow back into the Foundation’s treasury to help fund ecosystem development, protocol research, grants, and other core initiatives.

The decision follows the rollout of a revised treasury management strategy first outlined in 2025. That policy emphasized sustainability and long-term financial planning, including using native staking as a low-risk way to support operations without liquidating significant ETH holdings.

The Foundation said it is leveraging open-source staking infrastructure and client diversity to ensure operational resilience and minimize centralization risks.

By distributing validator responsibilities across different setups, it aims to uphold Ethereum’s core principles of decentralization and neutrality.

The announcement comes at a time when institutional interest in Ethereum staking continues to grow.

As regulatory clarity improves in several jurisdictions, staking is increasingly viewed as a compliant yield mechanism compared to more speculative crypto strategies.

Market observers say the Foundation’s decision could encourage other large ETH holders to adopt similar treasury approaches.

By actively participating in validation, the Ethereum Foundation reinforces confidence in the network’s economic model while aligning its financial strategy with the long-term health of the ecosystem.