DeFi
Tether Holdings, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is joining forces with Antalpha Platform Holding to raise at least $200 million for a groundbreaking venture centered on tokenized gold. The partnership aims to establish a public company that will hold Tether’s gold-backed digital asset, XAUt—blending
AI
Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos says today’s surge in artificial intelligence funding looks a lot like a classic economic bubble—but one that could ultimately deliver profound benefits. Jeff Bezos called AI an “industrial bubble” at Italian Tech Week: “Investors don’t usually give a team of six
Regulation
Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, is seeking a national trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to expand its payments and related services. The move, announced Friday, reflects Coinbase’s push to strengthen its role in digital payments without turning
Markets
Shares of Strategy Inc., the Bitcoin-focused company led by Michael Saylor, surged more than 6% on Tuesday after U.S. regulators clarified that unrealized crypto gains will no longer count toward the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT). The move marks the stock’s strongest advance in two weeks. As a
DeFi
Brex, the San Francisco-based financial technology company, is taking another step toward reshaping global payments by introducing stablecoin transactions on its platform. The company announced that clients will soon be able to send and receive USDC, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle, offering businesses faster and more flexible payment options.
Security
A Chinese woman at the center of one of the UK’s largest cryptocurrency investigations has pleaded guilty to laundering billions of dollars through Bitcoin, closing a years-long case that exposed the scale of global crypto crime. Yadi Zhang, 47—also known as Zhimin Qian—admitted in a London court
Finance
Vanguard Group Inc., one of the world’s largest asset managers, is weighing whether to allow trading of cryptocurrency-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on its platform—a potential policy shift that could mark a new chapter for the $11 trillion investment giant. For years, Vanguard has stood apart from competitors by
DeFi
Visa is experimenting with a new pilot program that could change the way money moves across borders. The payments giant is allowing banks, remittance firms, and other financial institutions to use pre-funded stablecoins—digital currencies backed by the U.S. dollar or euro—to make international transfers faster and more
Finance
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has officially surpassed Deribit to become the world’s leading platform for Bitcoin options trading, underscoring Wall Street’s rising dominance in digital assets. The shift marks a turning point for an industry once driven primarily by offshore crypto-native platforms. According to the latest
Swift, the world’s leading financial messaging network, has unveiled plans to develop a blockchain-based ledger aimed at modernizing international payments. The initiative, announced Monday, brings together more than 30 major banks—including JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank—in a collaborative effort to test a prototype
AI
Germany’s Black Forest Labs, a rising force in the artificial intelligence sector, is in early discussions to raise between $200 million and $300 million, potentially pushing its valuation to around $4 billion. Founded in August 2024 by a team of computer scientists—including contributors to the breakthrough Stable Diffusion
Finance
The once-fading market for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) is staging a surprising comeback, with two high-profile investors raising a combined $550 million to target fast-moving, high-risk sectors such as artificial intelligence, digital assets, and defense technology. On Thursday, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya—often referred to as the former “SPAC