The Wire PM — June 18, 2026

The Wire PM — June 18, 2026

Fed Proposes Stablecoin KYC Rules as Powell Backs the Plan and Warsh Abstains The Federal Reserve issued a proposed rulemaking requiring U.S. crypto firms to identify and screen stablecoin customers, the first major implementation of the GENIUS Act that legalized dollar stablecoins. The proposal, drafted jointly with the Treasury and the FDIC, sets out how issuers must run a customer identification program to block illicit flows. Former chair Jerome Powell backed it, while current chair Kevin Warsh abstained without explanation, and several officials flagged the rule's exemption for decentralized protocols as a gap. For yield users the signal is structural. The compliance perimeter around stablecoins is being drawn right now, and it will shape which issuers and venues can legally offer the dollar yields that anchor most conservative strategies. (The Block)

JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Mining Is Underwater as Price Falls Below Production Cost JPMorgan put bitcoin's estimated production cost near $78,000 while the asset trades around $62,600, which means miners are now selling below what it costs them to mint a coin. That gap pressures the weakest operators to sell reserves or idle rigs, adding supply into an already soft tape. Bitcoin fell about 4% on the day and Solana dropped close to 7%, extending the risk-off move that followed Wednesday's hawkish Fed. Mining stress rarely shows up in yields directly, but it is a clean read on how much pain the marginal seller is taking before the selling exhausts. (The Block)

The DAO Hack Turns 10, and Ethereum Earmarks $130M for Security Ten years after an attacker drained roughly 3.6 million ETH from The DAO, the breach that eventually split Ethereum into two chains, the ecosystem has stood up a $130 million fund to harden contracts and pay for audits. The throughline matters for anyone parking capital in DeFi. The modern audit and bug-bounty industry exists because early code shipped without it, and smart-contract risk is still the first thing to price before any APY. That is the same logic behind our security scores, which weigh audits, track record and admin-key design rather than the headline yield. (The Block)

Strategy's STRC Hits a Record Low as Fixed-Payout Questions Build Strategy's preferred stock STRC fell to an all-time low of $82.53 before recovering to about $87.45, down 2.6% on the day, dragging the firm's common shares with it. CoinShares' James Butterfill tied the weakness to uncertainty over how Strategy will service its fixed obligations while bitcoin sags, and Benchmark's Mark Palmer expects the company to raise STRC's dividend to push the price back toward par. Analysts do not see an existential threat yet. The caution for yield hunters is familiar: a high stated payout means little if the issuer's ability to fund it is in doubt, the same discipline that separates a durable APY from a fragile one. (Decrypt)

Numbers (Updated)

• BTC: $62,610 (-4.12%)
• SOL: $68.56 (-6.69%)
• ETH: $1,682.67 (-4.78%)
• Solana DeFi TVL: $4.77B
• Top USDC yield (Solana): Jupiter Lend at 4.10% APY ($417M)
• JitoSOL: 5.62% APY

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