UK lawmakers have launched a cross-party inquiry into whether banks have unfairly restricted cryptocurrency firms from accessing banking services and imposed limits on crypto-related payments, expanding Parliament’s examination of the country’s digital asset sector. According to a statement released on…
Anand Subbaraman is departing as CEO of Icertis, the Bellevue, Wash.-based contract management software company said Friday. Chief Financial Officer Rajat Bahri and longtime executive and Icertis board member Jim Moffatt will serve as interim co-CEOs as Icertis searches for its next CEO.
Subbaraman took the helm in August 2025 when Icertis co-founder Samir Bodas stepped down. Bodas had been the company’s only CEO since launching the business in 2009. Bodas shared at the time that he was resigning due to a health concern, and passed away in January after a battle with cancer.
Subbaraman, who joined Icertis in 2024 as chief operating officer, will serve as an advisor during the leadership transition. No reason was provided for his exit. We’ve asked the company for further details.
“We are grateful for Anand’s service and his work to expand the company’s AI capabilities and scale operations,” Moffatt said in a statement. “As our Board conducts its search for the next CEO, Rajat and I will ensure we do not miss a beat during this important time for our company.”
Icertis Chief Financial Officer Rajat Bahri, left, and board member Jim Moffatt will serve as interim co-CEOs as the company searches for a new chief executive. (Icertis Photos)
Founded in 2009, Icertis has raised more than $500 million and was valued at $5 billion four years ago. Its investors include SoftBank’s Vision Fund, SAP and PSP Partners, the firm chaired by lead independent director Penny Pritzker.
Bloomberg reported in February that Icertis was working with Goldman Sachs to explore a potential sale that could value the company at as much as $5 billion, citing people familiar with the matter. Buyout firms had shown preliminary interest, and no final decision had been reached, according to the report.
The company said Friday that Bahri will hold dual roles as interim co-CEO and CFO. He joined Icertis in 2022 and previously served as CFO at several companies, including ID.me; Wish, where he helped lead the company’s IPO; and Jasper Technologies.
Moffatt has served on the Icertis board since 2022, after previously serving on its advisory board, and is a member of the board’s audit and compensation committees. He has also been appointed chair of the board, in addition to his interim leadership role. Moffatt spent more than 35 years at Deloitte, leaving the company as vice chairman and global CEO of Deloitte Consulting. He is now president of JSM Advisors.
Asset manager T. Rowe Price on Thursday debuted its first crypto exchange-traded fund, giving investors exposure to Bitcoin and other digital coins.
T. Rowe Price, which with $1.89 trillion in assets is one of the largest U.S. asset managers, said that its Active Crypto ETF is the first actively managed multi-token spot ETF on the market.
The ETF, which trades on the NYSE Arca under the ticker TKNZ, mainly gives investors exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, weighed 40.75% and 18.42%, respectively, but includes other assets like Solana, XRP, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin, and BNB.
T. Rowe Price applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the product last October.
“Through the launch of the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, investors can gain access to a thoughtfully curated, professionally managed multi-coin portfolio that helps eliminate the guesswork of building a crypto allocation on their own,” Blue Macellari, who works as head of digital assets at the firm, said in an announcement.
The announcement added that the product was the “first of the firm’s lineup” for the digital asset space, hinting that more ETFs could soon follow.
Writing on X Thursday, Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior research analyst, James Seyffart, said: “Launching during a bear market and I know for a fact this product was years in the making. Legacy asset managers continue to build in the crypto space despite the pullback in prices.”
JUST IN: $1.9 trillion T. Rowe Price launched the first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETP
In January 2024, the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and other asset managers after years of denying applications.
The funds had the most successful debut in the ETF industry’s history, and now manage billions in dollars in assets.
Ethereum funds followed the same year and a number of altcoin products are now on the market for U.S. and European investors.
More traditional investors and Wall Street institutions can now buy crypto via shares that trade on traditional stock exchanges.
Investors were previously put off by some of the harder aspects of crypto management, such as keeping private keys safe and digital coin storage.
The Bitcoin ETFs in particular have helped integrate the asset into traditional finance, making it easier to borrow against or use as collateral.
Under President Trump’s crypto-friendly administration, regulators have become more relaxed towards regulating the digital asset space; many SEC lawsuits and investigations targeting crypto firms have been scrapped since the Republican took office.
Ault Capital has developed a Cosmos-based Layer-1 network for tokenized assets and digital settlement after banking disruptions affected businesses under its leadership. According to Ault Blockchain, the project seeks to reduce the role of traditional financial institutions in settlement while…
Belkin’s unusual new 10,000mAh power bank adds a motion-activated LED lamp, giving travelers emergency lighting and fast USB-C charging inside one compact device.
Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private lender, is preparing to launch its own digital depository and a full slate of crypto services once national regulation takes effect, joining a widening race among Russian banks to capture a market that does not yet legally exist.
Dmitry Vitman, chief operating officer of Alfa-Bank’s corporate and investment business, told RBC Investments that the bank intends to offer “all possible services related to digital currencies” once the relevant legislation comes into force.
“First and foremost, we plan to create our own digital depository and offer its services to other companies,” he said.
Under the framework expected to govern the market, a digital depository would record and store cryptocurrency and digital financial assets, monitor client transactions, and block transfers to addresses not sanctioned by authorities.
Firms that already hold a depository license would not need a separate license from the Central Bank to operate one.
Vitman said the market will develop gradually. Retail brokerage will come first, leaning on Russian and international infrastructure, with a possible launch in late 2026 or early 2027 if digital currency legislation enters into force in September 2026.
Even so, he cautioned that meaningful liquidity and volume in Russia’s crypto market are unlikely to materialize before late 2027, a timeline that reflects both the untested regulatory machinery and the caution of institutions wary of moving before the rules are final.
The bank also wants to build Russian investment instruments on open blockchains capable of attracting foreign investors.
“It’s important for Russia to develop its own instruments, otherwise we’ll have nothing to offer,” Vitman said. “We need to attract investors to our infrastructure, so we need to create products that can compete globally.”
A crowded field in Russia
Alfa-Bank is far from alone. T-Technologies Group, which controls T-Bank, has announced plans to launch a digital depository built on the Atomize digital financial asset platform and to sell crypto through its broker, T-Investments.
VTB Bank likewise plans to create its own domestic digital depository for storing, recording, and circulating digital assets, including Bitcoin.
State-owned giant Sberbank is moving the fastest. The bank will launch a digital depository for storing and accounting crypto by December 1. Sberbank also plans to enable authorized crypto transactions inside its Sber app and SberInvestments, integrating custody directly into services that reach tens of millions of Russians.
When bitcoin and crypto trading could begin
The draft law “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” has passed its first reading in the State Duma, advancing a sweeping regime that defines crypto circulation rules and introduces new professional participants, including crypto exchanges and digital depositories.
Originally slated to take effect July 1, 2026, the law’s timeline has slipped, with the new expected in-force date set for September 1.
Vladimir Chistyukhin, first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, said the regulator expects all rules needed to launch legal crypto operations to be adopted and published by November, clearing the way for the first transactions.
The Moscow Exchange expects to conduct its first crypto trades by the end of 2026.
Vanguard, one of the world’s largest asset managers and a longtime skeptic of cryptocurrency, has opened a search for a head of digital assets, a senior role that would shape the firm’s strategy across crypto and blockchain-based finance.
The job, posted this week within Vanguard Personal Wealth and based in Dallas, calls for an executive to develop the firm’s digital asset vision, identify business opportunities, and lead execution across product, technology, operations, legal, and compliance teams.
According to the posting, the hire would serve as Vanguard’s “senior subject matter expert,” advise senior leadership on market developments, and represent the firm in discussions with regulators and industry groups.
Vanguard also wants the executive to help shape “market standards” and build a scalable, end-to-end strategy for personal wealth clients.
The listing extends beyond crypto trading. It names tokenization, stablecoins, digital wallets, custody, and blockchain-based settlement as areas the new leader would evaluate, along with deciding whether Vanguard should build capabilities in-house, partner with outside firms, or hold off on entering parts of the market.
The role would involve constructing a multi-year roadmap and designing governance and risk frameworks.
Vanguard’s journey into bitcoin
Vanguard reported $12 trillion in assets under management at the end of 2025, a scale that places it second only to BlackRock.
The move appears to mark the first time the firm has sought to hire someone dedicated to cryptocurrency strategy, and it comes after years in which the bank stood apart from rivals. BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton rolled out spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and other blockchain products while Vanguard declined to follow.
The firm’s public posture has been pointed. Vanguard has described Bitcoin as an “immature asset class” ill-suited to long-term investors.
Chief Executive Salim Ramji, who joined the company from BlackRock in July 2024 after leading its iShares business — the unit behind the large iShares Bitcoin ETF — has said the decision not to launch a Bitcoin ETF was “entirely consistent” with the firm’s investment philosophy, stressing the value of consistency in the products a firm offers.
Even so, Vanguard has not stayed on the sidelines entirely. In December, the firm began allowing brokerage clients to trade cryptocurrency ETFs and mutual funds on its platform, a shift that opened access to funds holding Bitcoin and some other crypto.
At one point last year, the bank also became the largest shareholder in Strategy, the company that holds the world’s biggest corporate Bitcoin treasury — a position that flowed from its index funds rather than an active bet on the asset.
The new search does not signal an imminent product launch, and Vanguard has maintained that it has no plans to issue its own crypto investment vehicles.
What the posting does suggest is a broadening of focus beyond simply granting access to third-party funds, toward assessing how digital assets might fit within its wealth management business over the long term.
Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, intends to launch a cryptocurrency wallet and a digital depository once the country’s crypto legislation takes effect, a step that would put a state-controlled lender at the center of Russia’s emerging digital asset market.
Kirill Tsarev, First Deputy Chairman of Sberbank’s Management Board, announced the plan to RBC Investments at the Bank of Russia Financial Congress. He said the bank will offer authorized cryptocurrency transactions in the Sber and SberInvestments apps after lawmakers adopt the bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights.”
Vladimir Chistyukhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, said the law regulating the Russian crypto market is expected to take force on September 1. Tsarev said Sberbank plans to launch a crypto wallet within a few months of that date. The bank aims to build the infrastructure for cryptocurrency trading and to launch a digital depository for storing and accounting for crypto by December 1.
“As regulations emerge, we will prepare a service for our clients. Essentially, it will be a crypto wallet, which we will implement first in Sberbank Online and SberInvestments,” Tsarev said.
He added that firm deadlines will depend on the final text of the law and on the availability of updated Sber apps in online stores. Tsarev did not rule out that Android users will receive the new interface ahead of others.
A proposed amendment to the bill would let Russians trade on foreign exchanges through domestic intermediaries. Tsarev said Sberbank will consider becoming such an intermediary, though the decision will depend on regulatory requirements in Russia and abroad.
The bank is not alone. Moscow Exchange announced a planned launch of cryptocurrency operations by the end of 2026, according to group representative Igor Marich.
VTB and T-Bank Group announced plans to create their own digital depositories for crypto once the law takes effect. Russia is weighing a simplified licensing path for bank-run crypto exchanges.
The framework, developed by the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia, would establish licensed companies to keep records of digital assets, organize crypto trading, conduct digital-to-fiat exchange, and handle cross-border crypto settlements on behalf of clients.
Russians will gain the right to trade crypto on local exchanges after testing and within limits set for non-qualified investors, a move that opens Bitcoin access to retail investors.
Chistyukhin said crypto transactions under the new rules could begin in November 2026. A transition period will run until July 1, 2027, and criminal liability for violations will take effect in mid-2027.
Citigroup took a red pen to its crypto forecasts on Tuesday, cutting its 12-month price targets for bitcoin after the ETF flows that carried the market higher went into reverse.
The bank now sees bitcoin at $82,000 a year out, down from $112,000. It’s the second time Citi has trimmed those numbers in 2026. An earlier round of cuts had already pulled bitcoin down from $143,000.
What changed most is how Citi thinks about Bitcoin ETFs. The bank had been penciling in $10 billion of net inflows over the coming year. It now expects zero.
That is a big swing, and it reflects what has happened in the funds themselves: BTC ETFs have shed roughly $3.3 billion in 2026, and June alone saw $4 billion walk out the door — the worst month on record for the products.
Citi’s analysts tied the downgrade to a mix of softer investor demand, those negative ETF flows, and a Washington that has yet to move on digital asset legislation.
They also raised a more specific worry: that digital asset treasury companies, which have loaded up on bitcoin, might start selling. Add in a broader shift of money toward anything with an AI label, and the setup for crypto has turned defensive.
If things get worse, they could get a lot worse. Citi’s bear case — built on a recession and a steady drip of ETF withdrawals — puts BTC at $53,000 over the next 12 months.
Bitcoin price jumps above $60,000
Bitcoin currently trades at $60,041, up $1,698 (2.91%) on the day, per the live chart dated July 1, 2026.
Over the past 24 hours it swung between a low of $57,717.55 and a high of $60,473.99, with the biggest push coming after 9:00 a.m., when price broke from around $58,500 up past $60,400.
Volume ran to 446,377 BTC, or $26.85 billion. Market cap sits at $1.20 trillion, according to Bitcoin Magazine data.
Back in April, Citi said adding bitcoin alongside gold could improve portfolio performance, arguing that splitting a traditional 5% gold allocation between the two assets enhanced returns while providing better resilience during inflationary and bond market stress.
The report also noted BTC was increasingly behaving as both a geopolitical hedge and a neutral settlement asset, with analysts pointing to strong price momentum, bearish derivatives positioning that could fuel further gains, and BTC outperforming gold during recent market volatility.
Login
GeekWire
Digital Trends
