Aiming to reinforce regulation in the digital asset industry, the Texas legislature has enacted bipartisan House Bill 1666. Set to take effect on September 1, 2023, the legislation imposes rigorous requirements on digital asset service providers in terms of handling customer funds. Digital asset service providers, specifically those serving over 500 customers or holding at

In a significant announcement on the last day of the G7 summit, President Joe Biden took a firm stance against the protection of “wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders” while potentially jeopardizing food assistance programs. “I’m not going to agree to a deal that protects wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders while putting food assistants

According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, Asia’s leading end-to-end digital asset management and finance house, is in preliminary discussions to raise up to $200 million, a move that could propel its valuation north of $1 billion, as Hong Kong emerges as a growing global crypto hub. The company, with operations extending to Singapore and

Greenland Financial Holdings, a subsidiary of Greenland Group, is planning to apply for a virtual asset trading license in Hong Kong. The company’s move into the virtual asset space will further diversify its business portfolio and enhance its global influence, according to Jing Geng, Director and CEO of GreenLand Group and Chairman and President of

Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has announced significant updates to its premium membership service, Coinbase One. Notably, the platform will now offer zero trading fees and enhanced staking rewards to its members. These features are accompanied by additional benefits from Coinbase’s partners like Messari and CoinTracker. These benefits are available for a subscription fee of

Vega Protocol’s token VEGA has gained over 20% over the last seven days, with the protocol itself ready to go live as soon as Monday. Vega is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for creating and trading derivatives. It was deployed on alpha mainnet earlier in May. The associated token, VEGA soared to a monthly high of $1.62

Sotheby’s on Friday concluded its sale of several rare non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seized from bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) expansive collection, bringing in $2,482,850 to recoup some of the lost funds. The auction house launched its multi-part sale featuring NFTs from the Grails connection, formed as part of 3AC’s asset portfolio primarily in

MIAMI BEACH, Florida – The Bitcoin-focused payments firm Strike is expanding its app to more than 65 countries from the current base of the U.S. and El Salvador. Strike CEO Jack Mallers made the announcement on Friday at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami Beach, Florida. The Strike app uses Bitcoin and Lightning – a secondary network

DFZ Labs, the creative team behind zombie themed non-fungible token (NFT) collection Deadfellaz said Friday its rolling out a video utility extension to allow community members to bring their tokens to life and embody their avatars on screen. Called Streamingfellaz, the tool will let Deadfellaz token holders, also known as The Horde, to utlize the

Galaxy Digital’s first over-the-counter (OTC) option trade, executed earlier this week, marks a tangible step toward bringing the conventional financial system onto decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. FTX’s blowup and the collapse of several crypto lenders brought attention to the risks of centralized finance (CeFi) – AKA trusting one’s money with a company, rather than a

The Horizen network is expected to undergo a node upgrade on June 7, developers confirmed earlier this week on GitHub. Per Messari data, the hard fork has been scheduled on Horizen mainnet at block 1,363,115, estimated to arrive on Jun. 7, 2023, at approximately 13:00 UTC. Node operators have been asked to update to Zen v4.0.0 before

Crypto exchange giant Coinbase (COIN) says it loves Canada, where the rules have been set out and companies are able to engage with the regulators, compared with the U.S.’s lack of clarity and regulation by enforcement for the industry. It’s no secret that Coinbase is currently at loggerheads with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),

MIAMI BEACH, Florida – TBD, a division of Jack Dorsey’s financial-technology company Block (SQ), has launched a new open-source toolkit for its Web5 project, designed to make it easier for developers to create decentralized Internet applications. The collection of technologies includes tamper-proof, self-owned identifiers similar to email addresses or usernames called decentralized identifiers (DIDs) secure digital

Memecoins are crypto tokens that pay homage to or are inspired by internet memes. Although hundreds of memecoins exist, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) are the most popular ones. DOGE is inspired by the popular “doge” dog meme, which was very popular in the mid-2010s. SHIB is also inspired by the same dog but

Blockchain firm Ripple appointed the former CFO of market research firm Nielsen, Warren Jenson, to its board, the firm said recently. “For cryptocurrency to successfully deliver on its potential to revolutionize traditional financial infrastructure, companies in the space must prioritize transparency,” Jenson said in a release. “I’m excited to bring my experience to the company

The stablecoin universe continues to shrink, and until this stops, a sustained recovery in crypto prices is unlikely, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a recent research report. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to another asset, such as the U.S. dollar. “Headwinds from the U.S. regulatory crackdown on crypto, the unsettling of

Metaverse-focused blockchain MultiversX, formerly known as Elrond, is teaming up with crypto browser Opera to integrate support for its growing ecosystem. Opera users can explore the decentralized internet with the MultiversX network integrated into the browser’s interface. Users will also be able to transact with its native tokens EGLD or ESDT, connect to MultiversX-based non-fungible

ApeCoin DAO has passed a community proposal that would see the launch of an Accelerator that supports the incubation of projects utilizing apecoin tokens (APE) to bolster the fledging ecosystem. The new AIP-209, which was submitted and approved via ApeCoin DAO’s Idea Proposal system, will incubate and launch community-approved projects that focus on improving the value of

Miami-based venture capital firm Borderless Capital is leading a new $50 million fund that will support projects which focus on building cross-chain innovations, according to a press release. The fund will be powered by Wormhole, a decentralized message-passing protocol that connects blockchains, enabling them to communicate with each other. The portfolio companies invested by the

Chainlink, a provider of real-world data to blockchains, said infrastructure provider Coinbase Cloud will become a node operator on its system, adding capacity and security to the so-called oracle network, according to a  recent press release. A node operator monitors blockchains for data requests such as stock prices and temperature data, retrieves the off-chain information and delivers it to

Ripple is starting a central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform which allows central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their own digital currency. Using Ripple’s platform government institutions can manage and customize the entire life cycle of the CBDC, which includes minting, distribution, redemption and token burning. Financial institutions would also be able to

U.S. Bitcoin Corp (USBTC) has signed multi-year agreements to host 150,000 bitcoin mining machines with major firms including Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA). The deals showcase the apparent rebound in the mining industry, which is trying to rise after a rough 2022. Last year’s crypto downturn led to a lot of major miners going bankrupt, including

Lido community member, who goes by the screen name “lidomaxi,” created a governance proposal recently to increase the utility of Lido’s native governance token LDO by introducing staking and a buyback program for the token. The proposal includes an insurance fund for the Lido DAO as well as a revenue-sharing parameter that would redirect 20-50%

The Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) has released a comprehensive report examining the opportunities and challenges presented by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), including DLT-based Securities and associated activities across the securities lifecycle.  The report, developed in collaboration with GFMA member firms, incorporates the insights of industry practitioners at the forefront of DLT use cases research

In a recent report, a UK legislative committee has acknowledged the potential of cryptoassets and their underlying technologies to revolutionize financial services, particularly in streamlining payments and reducing associated costs. They specifically point to the potential benefits for cross-border transactions and economies with underdeveloped financial sectors. However, the committee raised concerns about the current regulatory

According to CoinShares’ Twitter, the leading alternative asset manager in Europe specializing in digital assets, digital asset investment products have seen a fourth consecutive week of outflows, totalling $54 million. This has brought the total outflow to $200 million. These outflows have been widespread across regions, reflecting a negative sentiment among investors that isn’t limited

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate has turned its attention to the legal challenges associated with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), amidst the booming digital economy, according to an announcement made on its website. As new-age technologies like blockchain and concepts like the “metaverse” gain global traction, emerging applications like NFTs have become the focus of market attention. NFTs,

Web3 developer platform Airstack has raised over $7 million after closing the second half of a pre-seed funding round that was led by Superscrypt. The startup allows developers to access and utilize cross-chain data using natural language requests backed by artificial intelligence (AI), an increasingly popular albeit controversial technology in the crypto space. “We did

Blockchain firm Ripple has acquired Swiss-based crypto custody provider Metaco for $250 million, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The purchase will allow Ripple to expand its offerings by incorporating the technology to custody, issue, and settle tokenized assets. Metaco offers customers crucial and secure custody infrastructure, allowing institutions to scale new business

In a recent hearing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Ishan Wahi to two years in prison for his involvement in an insider trading scheme that had rocked the cryptocurrency industry. Wahi had worked as a product manager at Coinbase and was accused of