Eyes on the Market: The On-Ramps Are Multiplying

The past two weeks have been less about what crypto did and more about who showed up to build the roads into it. Charles Schwab began rolling out spot crypto trading to its 35 million clients and $12 trillion in assets. Tokenized U.S. Treasuries reached a record $15.35 billion as inflation data pushed yield-seeking capital onchain. JPMorgan, Mastercard, Ripple, and Ondo completed a cross-border tokenized Treasury repo settlement pilot. And Jerome Powell's eight-year tenure as Federal Reserve Chair ended on Friday, with his successor Kevin Warsh now confirmed.

Bitcoin traded between roughly $78,600 and $82,300 over the period, with Ethereum ranging from $2,130 to $2,370. Prices are higher than where they sat two weeks ago, but they remain range-bound and tethered to the same forces that have defined 2026 so far: inflation, oil, and the Strait of Hormuz. What is changing, and changing fast, is the infrastructure connecting traditional finance to onchain markets.

Traditional Finance Developments

On May 13, Charles Schwab began its U.S. rollout of Schwab Crypto, allowing an initial group of retail clients to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum directly within the same brokerage accounts they use for stocks, ETFs, and retirement portfolios. The platform charges 0.75% per trade, with Paxos handling sub-custody and trade execution through its OCC-regulated infrastructure.

The move follows Morgan Stanley's launch of its own Bitcoin ETF in April and Goldman Sachs' Bitcoin Premium Income ETF filing the same month. Schwab's entry is different in scale: the firm oversees roughly $12 trillion in client assets across 39 million active brokerage accounts and already holds approximately 20% of all assets invested in U.S. spot crypto ETPs. When that distribution network offers direct crypto access alongside a client's existing portfolio, the friction that has kept traditional investors on the sidelines drops substantially.

Tokenized Treasuries Hit $15 Billion

Tokenized U.S. Treasuries reached a record $15.35 billion in value locked as of May 13, topping the previous mid-April peak of $15.10 billion. The sector added more than $1 billion over the prior 30 days, with Circle's USYC leading at $2.91 billion, followed by BlackRock's BUIDL at $2.58 billion, Ondo's USDY at $2.14 billion, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI at $2.05 billion. 

The growth has a clear catalyst: inflation. April's annualized U.S. CPI reading of 3.8% raised the probability of a Fed rate increase and sent traders seeking yield outside of spot crypto positions. Tokenized Treasuries now offer a straightforward way to earn real-world interest rates onchain without exiting the crypto ecosystem. As Crypto Briefing noted, tokenized Treasuries are beginning to displace DeFi lending protocols as the preferred source of low-risk yield, putting pressure on protocol-native yields and forcing DeFi projects to differentiate on something other than just offering a return.

The broader tokenized RWA market now stands at $33.7 billion, up 5% over 30 days. Total stablecoin value is ~$305 billion. These numbers continue climbing through the kind of macro environment that has historically compressed risk-asset valuations - which reinforces the thesis that onchain capital rotation is structural, not speculative.

Cross-Border Settlement Goes Live

On May 12, JPMorgan, Mastercard, Ripple, and Ondo Finance completed a pilot for the repurchase of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds across borders in near real-time. Ripple purchased Ondo Short-Term U.S. Government Treasury tokens on the XRP Ledger through JPMorgan's Kinexys platform and Mastercard's Multi-Token Network, with settlement instructions processed through a hybrid model combining blockchain infrastructure with traditional banking systems.

The dollar portion still moved through conventional banking channels, which keeps fiat flows within regulated rails. But the assets themselves settled onchain, outside regular banking hours, between institutions and across borders. JPMorgan's chief commercial officer called it a step toward building an institutional framework for tokenized asset markets. The pilot matters less for its size and more for its participants: four of the largest names in global payments and capital markets running production-grade infrastructure on public blockchains.

The CLARITY Act Clears Committee

On May 14, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 bipartisan vote, advancing the most ambitious crypto market structure legislation in U.S. history to the full Senate. Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joined all Republicans on the panel to vote in favor, giving the bill the bipartisan margin Chairman Tim Scott needed.

The path to Thursday's vote ran through four months of stalled negotiations. The Banking Committee was originally set to mark up the bill in January, but Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pulled support over stablecoin yield language, and Chairman Scott postponed indefinitely. The breakthrough came on May 1, when Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released a bipartisan compromise that bans passive yield on stablecoin balances but permits activity-based rewards tied to actual transactions and platform use. 

Thursday's hearing saw dozens of amendments debated, with several Republican amendments adopted on a bipartisan basis. Democratic amendments addressing law enforcement, ethics, and bank involvement in digital assets were either voted down or ruled procedurally ineligible.

The bill now heads to reconciliation with the Senate Agriculture Committee's companion market structure bill, approved in January on a party-line vote. The merged legislation then needs 60 votes on the Senate floor - a threshold that requires meaningful Democratic support beyond the two who voted yes in committee. 

At its core, the CLARITY Act would do something the industry has sought for a decade: draw a statutory line between which digital assets are commodities regulated by the CFTC and which are securities regulated by the SEC, replacing years of regulation by enforcement with a coherent federal framework. It would formally designate digital asset intermediaries under FinCEN supervision and establish registration pathways for brokers, dealers, and exchanges. For tokenized assets, stablecoins, and DeFi protocols operating in legal grey areas, this is the difference between building on borrowed time and building on statute. Crypto-linked stocks rallied on the vote - Coinbase gained more than 9%, Galaxy Digital rose 6.3%, and Strategy climbed 8% - reflecting the market's read that the bill's passage, while far from guaranteed, just became materially more likely.

Strategy's Accumulation Decelerates

Strategy continued buying Bitcoin over the period, but the pace decelerated sharply. The firm purchased 535 BTC for $43 million during the week ending May 11 at an average price of $80,340 per coin - its smallest weekly purchase of 2026. The prior week, the company paused purchases entirely ahead of its Q1 earnings report on May 5.

Total holdings now stand at 818,869 BTC, acquired for $61.86 billion at an average cost basis of $75,540. Year-to-date BTC Yield has slowed to 9.4%. The trajectory has bent sharply from April's peak: 34,164 BTC in one week, then 3,273, then a pause, then 535.

The more notable signal came from the Q1 earnings call, where leadership said Strategy is prepared to sell Bitcoin under certain conditions to repay convertible debt or fund dividend obligations, provided the move remains accretive on a bitcoin-per-share basis. This marks a shift from one-directional accumulation toward active balance-sheet management, and executives said they still expect to be net buyers, targeting 10 to 20 BTC bought per coin sold.

Macro: The Fed Transition

The Federal Reserve held rates at its May meeting, as expected. But the bigger story is the leadership transition happening this week. Jerome Powell's eight-year term as Fed Chair ended Friday, and the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as his successor in a 54-45 vote on May 13 - the narrowest confirmation vote for a Fed chair in U.S. history. Warsh's first FOMC meeting as chair is scheduled for June 16-17.

Meanwhile, April CPI came in at 3.8% annualized, higher than expected, keeping the inflation-oil-rates loop firmly in place. Brent crude remains above $100 per barrel as the Strait of Hormuz dual blockade persists. President Trump headed to China for a summit with Xi Jinping, saying he does not expect to need Beijing's help on Iran. The macro picture remains hostile for risk assets, but the structural build-out underneath continues regardless.

Overall

The past two weeks illustrate a market where the macro surface and the infrastructure layer are moving in opposite directions. Prices are range-bound. Inflation is sticky. Oil is elevated. Geopolitics remains unresolved. But underneath that surface, the on-ramps into crypto are being installed at a pace that would have been difficult to imagine even six months ago.

Schwab's $12 trillion distribution network now offers direct crypto trading. The CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9, advancing the most comprehensive crypto market structure legislation in U.S. history to the full Senate floor. Tokenized Treasuries crossed $15 billion as yield-seeking capital flows onchain. JPMorgan and Mastercard settled tokenized assets cross-border in near real time.

None of these individually change the market overnight. But collectively, they represent a structural shift in how capital accesses onchain markets - through the same brokerage accounts, the same regulatory frameworks, and the same settlement systems that traditional finance already uses. The on-ramps are multiplying, and when the macro environment eventually turns, the infrastructure to absorb that capital will already be in place.

This commentary is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital assets are volatile and carry significant risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results.