The street's best takes on crypto — without the timeline.

Omar argues Western Union's stablecoin strategy—launching USDPT on Solana this quarter alongside an offramp network and consumer card—offers its best path to survival by converting ~$500M in daily pre-funding float into real-time settlement and unlocking hundreds of millions more trapped across correspondent banking. If the business gains traction, WU reprices materially or becomes an acquisition target for Circle, which could roll it into Arc and consolidate merchant and consumer payment flows across a unified chain.

Figure Technology: Smoke And Mirrors From A Fast-And-Loose Lender Masquerading As A Blockchain Darling

Morpheus Research's 4-month investigation concludes Figure Technology is a $7.7 billion home equity lender masquerading as a blockchain innovator, with exaggerated or fabricated claims about blockchain-enabled advantages. The company's loan origination system doesn't use blockchain technology—it relies on third-party tools like Plaid and CoreLogic, contradicting repeated executive claims that loans are "native" to blockchain. Figure's blockchain projects including Figure Connect, Democratized Prime, and YLDS have either stalled or are internally propped up, while aggressive underwriting practices reminiscent of pre-2008 lending—full-draw requirements, lax title checks, automated valuations without appraisals—are driving delinquencies to 5.46% in 2025 versus 1.79% for Bank of America, alongside insider stock dumps totaling $120 million despite lock-up agreements.

STRC: The Biggest Catalyst We Have for DeFi Revival

DeFi yields are in survival mode — Aave stables 2%, Ethena/Sky under 4%, Pendle PTs can't clear 6%. STRC (Strategy's perpetual preferred, 11.5% monthly dividend, backed by 767K+ BTC) breaks the ceiling. Three protocols bring it onchain: Apyx Finance ($121M supply; apxUSD/apyUSD), Saturn Credit ($44.6M TVL in under a month; USDat/sUSDat), Buck ($2.2M). Flywheel: deposits → protocols buy STRC → Strategy issues shares → buys BTC → attention flows back to DeFi. This is the catalyst that brings liquidity back onchain.

Market is overlooking $GLXY's Helios datacenter business because it doesn't trust $CRWV will fulfill its 15-year, $1B/yr contract for the first 800MW. Gab argues Helios is priced at zero in the stock today — so if CRWV delivers, there's a meaningful mispricing inside a crypto-native equity. Asymmetric setup on the equity side of the AI-compute trade.