Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, US banks expect a digitized finance system to start “slow, then fast,” Polymarket’s monthly trading volume fell 9% in April in its first monthly decline since August and Metaplanet posted a $728 million first-quarter loss amid Bitcoin’s decline.

US banks see ‘slow, then fast’ shift to digitized finance

Major US banks expect the transition to a digitized financial system is inevitable and would start “slow, then fast,” with tokenization increasing and extending to more market participants, assets and use cases, the credit rating agency Moody’s said in a a report on Tuesday.

“Across our conversations, industry leaders generally believed that broad asset tokenization will happen; the main uncertainties center around how quickly and in what sequence,” Moody’s said.

Tokenization has been of major interest to institutions that is expected to also be a windfall for crypto, with ARK Invest predicting the crypto market value to $28 trillion by 2030, with Bitcoin, decentralized finance, stablecoins and tokenized assets as key drivers.

Moody’s predicts there are three possible outcomes for the financial system depending on the pace of tokenization. Source: Moody’s

Moody’s said current tokenization activity is low, but “almost all large banks and major financial market intermediaries have established dedicated digital-asset teams or innovation units and are participating in industry pilots to test new infrastructure.”

Polymarket monthly volume falls for first time since August

Monthly trading volume on the Polymarket prediction market fell by about 8.9% in April, the first decline in month-to-month activity since August as rivals like Kalshi increased their market share.

Polymarket and its US-based trading application collectively generated more than $10.2 billion in volume in April, compared to more than $11.2 billion in March, according to data from Dune Analytics.

However, rival Kalshi’s April trading volume surged by about 13%, climbing to about $14.8 billion, Dune data shows. 

The total monthly trading volume for prediction markets also increased to about $29.8 billion in April from about $26.5 billion in March, an increase of about 12.4%.

Monthly volume figures for prediction markets. Source: Dune

Metaplanet Q1 profit jumps, but Bitcoin losses hit bottom line

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet reported first-quarter operating income Wednesday of 2.27 billion Japanese yen (roughly $14.38 million) on net sales of about $19.5 million, implying an operating margin of 73.6% as surging Bitcoin option income more than tripled revenue from a year earlier, according to the company’s Q1 fiscal year 2026 earnings release.

The strong operating performance contrasted with an ordinary loss of around $728 million, driven mainly by non-cash valuation losses as Bitcoin's price declined during the period, and the company marked its expanding Bitcoin (BTC) holdings lower.

The price of Bitcoin fell around 24% during the quarter, from around $87,000 on Jan. 1 to roughly $66,000 on March 31, according to data from Coingecko.

Revenue for the quarter ending March 31 rose from about $5.5 million a year earlier to about $19.5 million, the filing shows, with the Bitcoin Income Generation business of option premiums and derivative valuation gains contributing the bulk of sales, while hotel operations remained a small, stable contributor.

BTC price fell 24% in Q1. Source: Coingecko