Circle Wins Federal Trust Charter, Bitcoin Miners Face AI Pivot Scrutiny, Japan Pushes Pension Funds Domestic

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Welcome to Stock Market Today, your market briefing with actionable insights on stocks, bonds, crypto, and the events moving markets. Let's get into it. Circle just cleared a major regulatory hurdle. The USDC stablecoin issuer secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust, a federally regulated national trust bank. This is the first major stablecoin infrastructure player to achieve full federal banking charter status under the new administration. Circle stock surged 16% in pre-market Friday on the news. USDC market cap sits at $73 billion.
The charter allows Circle to provide digital asset custody under direct federal oversight. Bitcoin miners are facing serious investor scrutiny over their AI infrastructure pivot. TeraWolf, Cypher Mining, and Riot Platforms executives have disclosed significant insider stock sales. TeraWolf CEO sold 1.59 million shares before for announcing a 20-year $1.9 billion AI lease with Anthropic. The TEM AI infrastructure growth index is down 16% over the past month. Wall Street analysts warn fewer than half of AI initiatives deliver returns, exceeding costs according to recent CEO surveys. Mara Holdings jumped 15% Thursday after announcing a 1,200-acre Texas site with 2 gigawatts of power capacity. Japan is steering its $2 trillion government pension investment fund toward domestic assets.
Finance Minister Kadayama announced the government wants GPIF to significantly increase investments in Japanese bonds and equities.
The fund currently holds $931 billion in foreign assets, including $232 billion in US treasuries. This domestic reallocation strengthens the long-term case for scarce store of value assets like Bitcoin and gold. Bitcoin institutional flows turned negative again. Spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $95 million Thursday. Despite negative flows, Bitcoin climbed 3.5% on Friday to break $64,000.
This marks Bitcoin's 307th day consolidating in the $60,000 to $70,000 range. That wraps your market intel. Trade smart out there. For deeper insights and real-time analysis, visit capitalcopilot.io.