Welcome to Kaupr Today

Good morning – and welcome to Kaupr Today. Markets are catching their breath after a week of extremes. Bitcoin steadied near $70K and is unning into fresh resistance around $71K, with sentiment gauges back at their most fearful levels since 2022 even as key support near $60K continues to hold. CoinShares says fears of quantum computers cracking Bitcoin are overstated.

Meanwhile, SaaS stocks staged a comeback as Wall Street pushed back on “AI doom” for software, highlighting which firms can thrive in the new era. Plus: OpenAI puts ads in ChatGPT, fintechs are turning into banks, and Kaupr’s new Invest pages launch to help readers navigate the next wave of digital finance.

Have a good read,
Morten

Roller-Coasters, quantum and SaaS risks

Bitcoin faces fresh resistance as fear gauge hits 2022 lows

Bitcoin’s rebound from last week’s washout is stalling just below 71,000 dollars, with traders treating the move as a classic bear‑market rally as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index sinks to single‑digit readings last seen during the FTX‑era 2022 downturn. Derivatives positioning shows weaker conviction, with futures open interest falling, funding rates turning negative, and ETF products seeing continued outflows, all against a backdrop of thinner spot liquidity and a roughly 50% drawdown from the late‑2025 peak.

Why it matters: Extreme fear and fading liquidity raise the odds that Bitcoin is in a prolonged bottom‑formation phase with multiple failed rallies, making 60,000 dollars a key line in the sand for whether this is a choppy consolidation or the prelude to another leg lower.

Source: Bitcoin Faces Fresh Resistance Near $71,000 as Fear Gauge Hits 2022 Lows, CoinDesk (via AInvest / Kaiko summaries)

CoinShares pushing back on ‘overblown’ quantum risk

CoinShares’ new analysis contends that fears about quantum computers breaking Bitcoin are overstated, estimating that only about 10,200 BTC—mainly in large legacy P2PK addresses with permanently exposed public keys—pose a meaningful market‑disruption risk if ever hacked. The firm argues that prior estimates claiming 20–50% of BTC is “at risk” conflate temporary exposures with permanent ones, and notes that current quantum machines remain orders of magnitude too weak to crack Bitcoin’s cryptography in practice.

Why it matters: Reframing quantum computing as a long‑term engineering challenge rather than an imminent existential threat aims to calm institutional jitters and underscores that Bitcoin can migrate to post‑quantum schemes over time without panic measures.

Source: CoinShares says only 10,200 BTC face real quantum risk, pushing back on ‘overblown’ estimates, The Block

Software stocks jump as Wall Street pushes back on ‘doomsday scenario’ for industry

After a brutal “SaaSpocalypse” rout driven by fears that AI agents will make subscription software obsolete, US software stocks rebounded on Monday as analysts argued the selloff had gone too far, with Oracle up about 10% on an upgrade tied to its AI partnerships and the main software ETF gaining roughly 3%. Strategists at firms like D.A. Davidson and Wedbush said AI is reshaping pricing and product models but is unlikely to wipe out demand for core enterprise platforms such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, especially while customers remain cautious about handing sensitive data directly to generic AI tools.

Why it matters: The bounce suggests markets are starting to differentiate between software companies that can integrate AI and remain core infrastructure and those at risk of being “vibe‑coded away,” rather than pricing in an indiscriminate, sector‑wide collapse.

Source: Software stocks jump as Wall Street pushes back on ‘doomsday scenario’ for industry, Yahoo Finance

AI apps from assistants to ad platforms

ChatGPT rolls out ads

OpenAI has begun rolling out ads inside ChatGPT for logged‑in adult users on the free and low‑cost Go plans, with sponsored messages appearing at the bottom of responses when there is a relevant product or service tied to the conversation. Paid tiers like Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education remain ad‑free, and OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT’s answers, nor will it sell user data to advertisers, framing the move as a way to keep basic access cheap while diversifying revenue.

Why it matters: The shift turns one of the world’s most widely used AI products into an ad‑supported platform for hundreds of millions of users, raising new questions about incentives, user trust, and how far monetisation will shape the future of consumer AI.

Source: ChatGPT rolls out ads, TechCrunch (via aggregated coverage of OpenAI’s announcement)

Everyday Bitcoin, stablecoins and new banks

Jack Dorsey’s Block: Cash App is built for an everyday life with bitcoin

Kaupr highlights how Jack Dorsey’s Block is redesigning Cash App around “living on bitcoin,” pointing to new features like zero‑fee or low‑fee BTC buys, higher withdrawal limits, Lightning payments, Bitcoin Map for finding accepting merchants, and tools like Paid in Bitcoin and Auto Invest that turn salaries and spare change into BTC. Together with upcoming stablecoin support and deeper integration with Square’s merchant network, these changes aim to make Bitcoin work quietly in the background of how people earn, save, and spend—rather than sit as a speculative asset.

Why it matters: By making Bitcoin cheaper to buy, easier to move, and more useful at the point of sale, Block is pushing BTC closer to its original vision as everyday peer‑to‑peer money, not just a long‑term bet.

Source: Jack Dorsey’s Block: Cash App is built for an everyday life with bitcoin, Kaupr

Farcaster founders join stablecoin startup Tempo

Farcaster co‑founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan, along with the Merkle team behind the decentralized social app, have left day‑to‑day work on the protocol to join Tempo, a Paradigm‑ and Stripe‑backed stablecoin startup focused on global payments. The move comes shortly after infrastructure provider Neynar acquired Farcaster’s codebase, smart contracts, and apps, with Romero calling stablecoins a “generational opportunity” and Srinivasan framing Tempo as a bet on fast, low‑cost, transparent cross‑border payments.

Why it matters: The shift of high‑profile Web3 founders from social protocols to a well‑funded stablecoin chain underscores how much of crypto’s top talent now views stablecoins and payment rails—not social or pure DeFi—as the clearest path to mass adoption.

Source: Farcaster founders join stablecoin startup Tempo after Neynar acquires social protocol, CoinDesk (via republication summaries)

These Tech Companies Are Becoming Banks

After years of regulatory gridlock, fintech and crypto firms including SmartBiz, Revolut, Circle, Ripple, Nubank, and Fidelity Digital are securing US banking charters—either by acquiring small community banks or via new “national trust” licenses—to cut funding costs, gain direct access to payment rails, and future‑proof their business models. A flurry of OCC approvals in late 2025 marked a turning point: SmartBiz bought Detroit’s Centrust Bank to obtain its charter, five firms including Circle and Ripple received conditional national trust approvals on a single day, and more than a dozen additional charter applications are now under review.

Why it matters: As regulators under President Donald Trump open the door, leading fintech and crypto companies are turning into full‑fledged banks, blurring the line between “tech” and “bank” and reshaping how deposits, payments, and digital assets are handled in the US.

Source: These Tech Companies Are Becoming Banks As Regulators Open The Door, Forbes

New Kaupr pages built around the investor

Kaupr launches Invest – new pages for both new and experienced crypto investors

Kaupr has launched Invest, a new section aimed at both beginner and experienced investors who want to navigate crypto and digital assets, covering everything from trading on centralized exchanges to listed crypto ETPs, crypto‑related stocks and funds, and tokenized real‑world assets. The new pages pull together news, explainers, and market overviews with a particular focus on Nordic companies and products, giving readers a structured entry point into the broader “future of finance” theme.

Why it matters: By packaging education and market coverage into a dedicated Invest universe, Kaupr is positioning itself not just as a news outlet but as an on‑ramp for mainstream investors who want to build diversified, regulated exposure to digital assets.​

Source: Kaupr launches Invest – new pages for both new and experienced crypto investors, Kaupr

What to watch for

Look out for ETF flows, stablecoin supply and on‑chain liquidity as early signals of how much risk markets are willing to take across both crypto and equities, noting that these readings can flip quickly when macro data or news hits. Also keep an eye on how fast tokenization projects move from pilots into live products on real balance sheets, alongside the risk that timelines slip or early implementations struggle with liquidity and regulation

Why it matters: These indicators can show whether digital finance is gaining depth and resilience or stalling at the proof‑of‑concept stage, but they can also reveal how concentrated and fragile some liquidity channels still are. They highlight which platforms and jurisdictions are quietly becoming key hubs for the next phase of market infrastructure, even as short‑term volatility, ETF outflows and shifting rate expectations continue to inject headline risk into prices and flows.

Share Kaupr Today

Thank you for reading Kaupr Today. If you find this briefing useful, please share it with a colleague or friend who should be following Nordic and European digital‑finance news more closely. Wishing you a great Tuesday — and welcome back on Wednesday morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.

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Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor