Billionaire Investor Druckenmiller Bullish on Stablecoin

USDC Flips USDT on Real Volume | Ethereum Foundation Sells 5,000 ETH to BitMine

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
March 16, 2026

📢Sponsor | 💡Telegram | 📰Past Editions

Good Morning,

Stablecoins are having a moment. Druckenmiller is blessing the payment rail thesis, USDC is flipping USDT on real-world volume, and TradFi is slowly but surely picking a side. The infrastructure narrative is winning.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today's Email:

What Matters: Billionaire Investor Druckenmiller Bullish on Stablecoin 💵
Product of the Week: Ammalgam’s Strategy Vaults 🚀
Charts: USDC Flips USDT on Real Volume, EF Sells 5,000 ETH to BitMine 📊

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

Narratives: Stablecoin Infrastructure

For daily market updates and airdrop alphas, check out our telegram!

WHAT MATTERS

Billionaire Investor Druckenmiller Bullish on Stablecoin

Stanley Druckenmiller / IMG: Reuters

State of play: Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller thinks stablecoins will dominate global payments within 15 years, calling them "efficient, quicker, cheaper," even as he keeps dunking on crypto as a store of value.

Druckenmiller predicts the entire global payment system will run on stablecoins within 10-15 years, calling them "efficient, quicker, cheaper."
He maintained his long-standing crypto skepticism, calling it "a solution looking for a problem" as a store of value.
The stablecoin market cap has hit an all-time high of nearly $300B, up over 440% from ~$55B five years ago.
US officials, including a White House digital assets advisor, argue GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins could drive new deposits into the US banking system.
Druckenmiller did concede that Bitcoin has built enough brand recognition to stick around as a financial asset.

Why it matters: Druckenmiller isn't a crypto guy, so when he calls stablecoins the future of payments, it lands differently. TradFi's heavyweights are starting to separate the payment rail story from the speculative asset story.

Our take: The former Duquesne Capital founder likes the pipes, just not the coin.

For builders and investors: The stablecoin payment thesis is moving from fringe to consensus fast. We should be eyeing infrastructure plays, settlement layers, and compliance tooling over pure crypto exposure.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Ammalgam Launches Strategy Vaults

Ammalgam is rolling out strategy Vaults ahead of its April mainnet, giving users passive exposure to advanced DeFi plays without manually managing positions. The protocol combines lending, borrowing, and trading in one system, no external oracles.

Vaults are built on Lagoon Finance's infrastructure, accepting USDC, ETH, or BTC deposits in exchange for ERC-7540 share tokens.
Ammalgam runs without external price oracles, deriving pricing and risk decisions directly from onchain executable liquidity to reduce manipulation risk.
Some Vaults may initially park capital in third-party vaults before transitioning to Ammalgam-native pools as liquidity matures.
Redemptions are not always instant since Vaults hold active positions, with settlement windows and fees disclosed upfront.
The protocol raised a $2.5M seed in 2024, co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Framework Ventures.

Other cool products:

SunPerp, a perpetual exchange on TRON.
Colend, a native lending and borrowing protocol.
SunPump, a memecoin launch & trading on TRON.
Vires, a non-custodial liquidity protocol based on Waves Blockchain.
TIG, a PoW network that turns mining into open algorithmic research.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

USDC Flips USDT on Real Volume

Source: Mizuho

State of play: Mizuho says USDC has overtaken USDT in adjusted transaction volume YtD, marking a reversal of a trend that held from 2019 to 2025. "Adjusted" here means real-world transfers from actual people and institutions, not bot noise or wash trading.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $227.9M in net outflows on March 5, snapping a three-day positive streak led by BlackRock's IBIT.
Bitfinex noted spot buying has been "systemic," with the Coinbase premium turning positive after 40 days in negative territory.
Some analysts flagged Bitcoin's resilience during the US-Israel-Iran conflict as evidence of a growing safe-haven narrative.
QCP Capital warned that oil prices, not geopolitics, remain the key macro driver, with elevated energy costs keeping yields heavy and capping a sustained rally.
Bitcoin traded around $69,925, down 4.1% in 24 hours, with a dense long-liquidation zone near $70K and potential support retest closer to $66K.

Our take: Market cap is Tether's moat, but if stablecoins are really about payments, USDC is quietly winning the fight that matters. Circle's compliance-first bet is paying off.

Ethereum Foundation Sells 5,000 ETH to BitMine

Source: ethereumtreasuries.net

State of play: The Ethereum Foundation sold 5,000 ETH to BitMine in a $10.2M OTC deal, its second direct sale to a corporate treasury buyer. Proceeds go toward protocol R&D, ecosystem development, and community grants.

BitMine, chaired by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, is the largest publicly traded ETH treasury company, holding over 4.5M ETH valued at ~$9.3B.
The average sale price was $2,042.96 per ETH, roughly in line with market levels at the time of the deal.
This is the EF's second OTC sale to a corporate buyer, following a 10,000 ETH sale to SharpLink Gaming in July 2025 at $2,572.37 per ETH.
The OTC approach sidesteps public exchange sell pressure that drew community backlash in September when the EF initially planned to sell via CEXs.
The EF's treasury policy targets 15% of its holdings as annual operating spend with a 2.5-year runway buffer.

Our take: OTC deals keep sell pressure off the market and turn routine sales into headlines that benefit Ethereum. BitMine loading up at $2K is a bold bet, and the Foundation found a cleaner way to fund itself.

QUICK BITES

Erik Voorhees buys $56M worth of Ethereum.
USDC overtakes USDT in ‘adjusted’ volume year-to-date.
EF sells 5,000 ETH to Tom Lee's BitMine in $10M OTC deal.
BlockFills files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after weeks of turmoil.
Druckenmiller says stablecoins could power payments in 10-15 years.
Aave & CoW Swap publish post-mortems after $50M DeFi swap disaster.
Probe reveals doc detailing alleged $5M deal linking Milei to Libra promotion.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Andrew’s read on Many Chains are actually Dead?
Chamath’s read on The Collapse Of Terminal Value.
Miles Jennings’s read on the end of the foundation era in crypto.

— (@)

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time, but it would mean the world to us 🙇

Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.