Crypto's connections to the rest of the financial system

By Elizabeth Howcroft

PARIS (Reuters) -Cryptocurrency markets person surged successful caller years, successful portion fuelled by the Trump administration's pro-crypto stance which has encouraged wider acceptance among fiscal institutions.

With a full worth of $3.2 trillion and astir $197 cardinal of trading measurement per day, cryptocurrencies correspond ​a tiny portion of planetary markets, crypto tracker CoinGecko estimates.

But regulators and investors are inactive disquieted astir whether immoderate problems successful the lightly regulated crypto satellite ‌could spill implicit into the wider fiscal system.

The biggest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, fell beneath $90,000 for the archetypal clip since April this week, and immoderate $1.2 trillion has been wiped disconnected the worth of each cryptocurrencies ‌in six weeks.

Bitcoin, mostly moves successful enactment with broader hazard appetite. Its correlation with the S&P 500 connected a one-month rolling ground this week was 0.84, its strongest successful six weeks, LSEG information shows. Correlation is measured from -1 to 1.

Here's wherever crypto and mainstream markets intersect.

STABLECOIN RESERVES

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to a real-world currency, usually the U.S. dollar. Stablecoin issuers clasp reserves to lucifer the fig of tokens they person created, and accidental that token-holders tin swap their stablecoins backmost into dollars connected demand.

Financial ⁠stability experts pass that a unreserved of redemption requests would origin ‌a tally connected these reserves, affecting banks wherever currency is deposited, oregon adjacent the assets that the reserves are invested in.

The stablecoin marketplace is dominated by El Salvador-based Tether, which has astir $181 cardinal successful reserves, of which $112 cardinal is held successful U.S.‍ Treasuries. Rival Circle holds $24 cardinal successful U.S. Treasuries.

CRYPTO-RELATED STOCKS

Crypto stocks person soared successful 2025, and much crypto companies person gone public. But axenic players stay a tiny portion of the wide market.

The marketplace headdress of stocks successful the "blockchain and cryptocurrency" and "cryptocurrency mining" class is $225 billion, conscionable 1.8% of the planetary equities market, LSEG ​data shows.

This excludes alleged crypto treasury companies, whose concern exemplary is to bargain and clasp crypto. While the bitcoin buyers see large players similar Strategy, dozens ‌of penny stocks person this twelvemonth been taken implicit by crypto enthusiasts to stake connected rising prices.

Standard Chartered estimates that a bitcoin terms beneath $90,000 leaves fractional of these companies' firm treasuries holding bitcoin worthy little than they paid for it.

Four of the 173 caller U.S. nationalist listings successful 2025 person been crypto companies, raising a combined $1.2 billion, astir 3.3% of the full funds raised from U.S. IPOs, LSEG said.