Crypto market turmoil: US stablecoin legislation, Aster project progress, and regulatory policy changes

This week, the crypto market showed significant fluctuations. At the beginning of the week, Bitcoin and Ethereum led the market in a rally, especially with DeFi Tokens being briefly pumped due to favourable information from the SEC chairman at a roundtable meeting. However, on Friday, the geopolitical situation in the Middle East suddenly escalated, triggering panic in the market, with most alts falling about 10%. Additionally, SharpLink Gaming's prospectus submitted to the SEC was misunderstood as a large-scale sell-off, causing its stock price to experience a big dump of 70%, which also affected the price of Ethereum.

This week, focus on three aspects: the warming narrative of stablecoins, the dynamics of the Aster project, and changes in regulatory policies.

Regarding stablecoins, the U.S. Senate has passed a procedural vote on the "GENIUS Stablecoin Act," which could complete the legislative process as early as next Monday. This will become the first comprehensive federal legislation in the United States targeting crypto assets. Government agencies have expressed support for the bill, and Trump hopes to sign the stablecoin legislation before August. As a result, other countries and institutions are also beginning to lay out plans in the stablecoin sector.

South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung has an open attitude towards the crypto industry. The ruling party has proposed the "Basic Law on Digital Assets," allowing local companies to issue stablecoins. The governor of the Bank of Korea will discuss the development of won-backed stablecoins with executives from commercial banks. Projects like KakaoPay and Kaia have benefited from this, with significant increases in stock prices and token prices.

In traditional institutions, the total trading volume of stablecoins in 2024 reached $27.6 trillion, exceeding the combined trading volume of Visa and Mastercard. Many companies are beginning to consider integrating stablecoins into their payment systems.

The Aster project has completed the airdrop snapshot for Au points. This project is an important DEX in the BNB Chain ecosystem, benchmarking against Hyperliquid. The AST Token will replace APX, but the specific exchange ratio has not yet been determined.

In terms of regulatory policies, the SEC Chairman stated at the "DeFi and the American Spirit" roundtable that the design concept of DeFi aligns with the American spirit. The SEC clarified that PoW and PoS activities are not under the jurisdiction of federal securities laws, supports users' self-custody rights, and is exploring an "innovation exemption" framework. In addition, the SEC requires the issuers proposing to launch a spot SOL ETF to submit a revised S-1 form, which may indicate that the ETF will be approved within 3-5 weeks.

The market has entered the ETF speculation cycle. The final deadline for the Sol ETF application is around October 11, 2025, and the likelihood of approval is high. Investors can pay attention to Sol's native coin and high-quality assets such as Raydium, Orca, Jito, and Sanctum.