DeFi & L1L2 — 🔼Tokenized stocks and private equity surged in May; Mastercard to add regulated stablecoins to its settlement options

Tokenized stocks and private equity surged in May. Mastercard to add regulated stablecoins to its settlement options. Humanity Protocol lost $30M in H tokens to an exploit.

Key Takeaways

• Tokenized stocks and private equity market values surged 47.4% and 24.9%, respectively, in May, fueled by AI sector momentum and pre-IPO hype for companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI.
• Mastercard announced plans to expand its payment settlement capabilities to support regulated stablecoins, specifically USDC, PYUSD, RLUSD, and others.
• Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are reportedly backing a soon-to-debut stablecoin platform.
• Zcash suffered a steep market drop after security engineer Taylor Hornby disclosed a bug in the Orchard privacy pool. An emergency network upgrade was deployed to patch the vulnerability, and Zcash rebounded following a proposed ”Ironwood” upgrade.
• Starknet introduced the STRK20 privacy framework, designed to shield ERC-20 token balances and conceal transfer histories on the network.
• Ethena secured strategic backing from global asset manager Janus Henderson, which invested in the ENA token to explore expanding USDe synthetic dollar distribution.
• Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov attributed a multi-million dollar liquidity crisis and subsequent US$8.45 billion deposit run to third-party bridge vulnerabilities rather than Aave’s core code. Aave proposed a protocol-wide V4 risk framework overhaul as a direct response to the deposit contagion triggered by the KelpDAO bridge exploit.
• Sky launched a fixed yield product using Pendle Protocol (PENDLE)’s yield-tokenization infrastructure, enabling sUSDS users to lock in a predetermined return rate for a specific maturity date.
• Apyx Finance’s apxUSD lost its dollar peg, dropping to approximately $0.91 amid a sharp decline in Bitcoin and a corresponding fall in the value of its primary collateral, the Strategy-issued preferred stock STRC.
• The Humanity Protocol, a decentralized identity project using a zkEVM blockchain and palm biometrics, suffered a security breach compromising a Humanity Foundation member’s private keys. The exploit resulted in the theft of at least $30 million in its native H token, causing its price to plummet by 85% from $0.70 to $0.08.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap  declined -13.53%, while the volume and volatility indices grew +3.67% and +65.84%, respectively.

• Ethena (ENA)secured strategic backing from global asset managerJanus Henderson, which invested in the ENA token to explore expanding USDe synthetic dollar distribution.
• Aave Labs (AAVE) CEO Stani Kulechov attributed a multi-million dollar liquidity crisis and subsequent $8.45 billion deposit run to third-party bridge vulnerabilities rather than Aave’s core code. Aaveproposed a comprehensive, protocol-wide V4 risk framework overhaul as a direct response to the deposit contagion triggered by the KelpDAO bridge exploit.
• Skylaunched a fixed yield product using Pendle Protocol (PENDLE)’s yield-tokenization infrastructure, enabling sUSDS users to lock in a predetermined return rate for a specific maturity date.

Chart of the Week

Despite a broader cryptocurrency market pullback in May driven by macroeconomic headwinds, most tokenized real-world asset (RWA) categories achieved growth. Tokenized stocks and private equity surged 47.4% and 24.9%, respectively, fueled by AI sector momentum and pre-IPO hype for companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

This growth extended to stock and pre-IPO perpetual trading, where traders leveraged 24/7 market access to track broader TradFi movements.

News Highlights

• Mastercardannounced plans to expand its payment settlement capabilities to support regulated stablecoins, specifically USDC, PYUSD, RLUSD, and others. This initiative allows issuers and acquirers to settle card transactions using these assets across networks like Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, XRPL, and more.
• Major payment firms, including Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard, are reportedly backing a soon-to-debut stablecoin platform.
• Zcash suffered a steep market drop after security engineer Taylor Hornby disclosed a bug in the Orchard privacy pool. The bug theoretically permitted unlimited and undetectable counterfeit token minting, and had gone unnoticed for four years. An emergency network upgrade was deployed to patch the vulnerability, and Zcash rebounded following the proposed “Ironwood” upgrade which would create a new shielded privacy pool.
• Starknetintroduced the STRK20 privacy framework, designed to shield ERC-20 token balances and conceal transfer histories on the network. The rollout represents a major technological advancement for scalable, compliant, and confidential transactions on Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) networks.
• Apyx Finance’s apxUSDlost its dollar peg, dropping to approximately $0.91 amid a sharp decline in Bitcoin and a corresponding fall in the value of its primary collateral, the Strategy-issued preferred stock STRC. The depeg occurred between June 3 to 4, as STRC fell below its $100 par value and Bitcoin extended a week-long selloff, trading near $60,000.
• • Collateral Structure: apxUSD is 60–90% backed by STRC preferred shares, linking its value to Strategy’s Bitcoin-heavy treasury and inherent volatility.
  • Liquidity Mismatch: STRC trades only during U.S. market hours on Nasdaq, causing price lags compared to 24/7 crypto markets during Bitcoin declines.
  • Market Panic and Slippage: The price drop fueled “price agnostic” selling and instability across Pendle and Morpho apxUSD markets.
  • Redemption Strategy: Apyx redeemed apxUSD below net asset value during U.S. hours to protect collateralization and avoid fire-selling STRC.
• The Humanity Protocol, a decentralized identity project using a zkEVM blockchain and palm biometrics, suffered a security breach compromising a Humanity Foundation member’s private keys. The exploit resulted in the theft of at least $30 million in its native H token, causing its price to plummet by 85% from approximately $0.70 to $0.08.

Recent Research Reports

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as aPrivate member, joining ourCrypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting aLoaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available

We’re all ears.

Your feedback has always helped us provide insightful crypto market trends. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter further by taking a quick survey below (it will only take less than a minute). Thank you!

Be the first to hear about new insights:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Share with Friends

Source: crypto.com