The Daily: White House stablecoin meeting ends in impasse, BlackRock taps Uniswap for direct onchain BUIDL trading, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Wednesday! Bitcoin fell back below $67,000 this morning as analysts flagged a hawkish macro shift, with signs of deep deleveraging and tighter liquidity weighing on prices.

In today’s newsletter, the White House meeting on stablecoin yield ends without a clear resolution, BlackRock taps Uniswap for direct onchain BUIDL trading, LayerZero launches its own blockchain, and more.

Meanwhile, Stripe integrates x402 for USDC agent payments on Base.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It’s a great read — and just like The Daily, it’s free to subscribe!

White House session ends in impasse as banks demand restrictive parameters on stablecoin rewards

U.S. crypto and banking executives met at the White House for a second closed-door session on stablecoin yield but left without resolving the dispute that has stalled broader market structure legislation.

• Major banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, and JPMorgan, took a hard line, pushing sweeping “prohibition principles” that would broadly ban financial or non-financial benefits tied to holding payment stablecoins.
• The banks’ demands go beyond the latest draft bill, which bars passive yield but permits narrower, activity-based rewards or incentives.
• Crypto stakeholders, including Ripple, Coinbase, and industry trade groups, strongly pushed back, particularly against strict anti-evasion and enforcement provisions, a source said.
• Participants indicated the debate may now shift back to trade groups or the Senate Banking Committee as lawmakers weigh next steps.
• Despite the impasse, Ripple’s Stuart Alderoty and Coinbase’s Paul Grewal described the talks as productive and signaled continued bipartisan momentum behind market structure reform.

BlackRock, Securitize tap DeFi giant Uniswap for direct onchain BUIDL trading; UNI surges

BlackRock is enabling direct onchain trading of its $2.4 billion tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL via UniswapX in collaboration with Securitize and Uniswap Labs.

• The move marks BlackRock’s first use of DeFi trading infrastructure for a tokenized product, bridging regulated asset management with decentralized liquidity rails.
• Trading will run through Securitize Markets under a request-for-quote model that connects pre-qualified, whitelisted institutional investors and settles transactions onchain.
• BlackRock also purchased an undisclosed amount of UNI, sending the token’s price up roughly 20% immediately following the announcement.

Citadel and Ark Invest back LayerZero as it launches own blockchain, partners with Google Cloud and DTCC

LayerZero is launching its own Layer 1 blockchain called Zero, claiming up to 2 million transactions per second and dramatically higher throughput than Ethereum and Solana.

• Citadel Securities and Ark Invest made strategic investments in the project by acquiring ZRO tokens, with Ark also taking an equity stake in LayerZero Labs.
• Google Cloud and DTCC partnered with LayerZero to explore blockchain infrastructure for high-performance trading, settlement, and tokenized assets.
• Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, also plans to evaluate how Zero could support 24/7 trading, while Tether disclosed a separate strategic investment in LayerZero Labs.

Robinhood launches public testnet for blockchain built on Arbitrum

Robinhood launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 built on Arbitrum, as it deepens its push into onchain infrastructure.

• The testnet allows developers to experiment, identify issues, and improve network stability ahead of a mainnet launch planned for later this year.
• Robinhood said the Layer 2 aims to power onchain real-world assets and connect builders to DeFi liquidity within the Ethereum ecosystem, as the firm expands its tokenized stock offerings and plans for 24/7 trading and near-real-time settlement.
• Meanwhile, Robinhood shares fell after the company reported a 38% year-over-year drop in fourth-quarter crypto revenue, though analysts at Bernstein said the weakness reflects temporary “crypto jitters,” reiterating their $160 price target.

K33 sees ‘strong case’ bitcoin has bottomed amid ‘capitulation-like’ conditions

K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde said a “vast list of extreme outliers” across volume, funding rates, options skews, and ETF flows makes a “strong case” that bitcoin’s plunge to $60,000 marked a local bottom.

• The firm highlighted 95th percentile spot volumes, deeply negative funding rates, and a 6 reading on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index as evidence of “capitulation-like” conditions across markets.
• K33 now expects bitcoin to enter a prolonged consolidation phase between $60,000 and $75,000, with elevated odds of a retest but limited material downside below the recent low.

In the next 24 hours

• UK GDP data are due at 2 a.m. ET on Thursday. U.S. jobless claims numbers follow at 8:30 a.m.
• Aerodrome is among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• Consensus Hong Kong, Bitcoin Investor Week, and Cayman Crypto Week continue.

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