JPM research reports are usually quite accurate when predicting declines in alts, and this time is no different.

According to BBX data, traditional payment institutions are diverging in their crypto infrastructure strategies: Mastercard acquired BVNK for about $1.8 billion and gave up on talks to take a stake in Zerohash. Zerohash is seeking a new round of funding, with a valuation of more than $1.5 billion. BVNK has stablecoin infrastructure covering more than 130 countries and multiple licenses, and Mastercard will connect stablecoins to the Move cross-border network. JPM research says that Ethereum and altcoins will lag Bitcoin in the long run because of low network activity, stalled DeFi growth, and limited real-world applications, with a lack of catalysts in the short term.