BOK Doubles Down on Bank-Led Stablecoins as Deposit Token Pilots Advance

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has doubled down on its stance that won-denominated stablecoins should first be issued through bank-led consortiums. According to local reports from Digital Asset and EDaily, the central bank made the comments in materials submitted on Thursday to the National Assembly’s finance committee. Local outlets reported that the BOK called for…

Stablecoins see biggest drop since 2022 crypto winter led by Tether (USDT), Circle’s USDC decline

The combined market capitalization of major stablecoins fell from roughly $166 billion in March 2022 to $122 billion by September 2023, RWA.xyz data shows — a decline of over 26% as investors pulled money from the digital asset market. Tether’s USDT fell from $78 billion to $65 billion between March and November 2022. For USDC,…

Empery Digital Sold Bitcoin to Fund AI Data Center

Shares in Bitcoin treasury company Empery Digital rose on Friday after the firm disclosed it had sold nearly half its Bitcoin holdings to fund an AI data center project and pay down debt. Empery Digital (EMPD) shares popped 4.2% to $3.95 within the first 35 minutes of trading on Friday after the company revealed that…

Cambridge Compares Ethereum Energy Use With PoS Networks

A new Cambridge study placed Ethereum near the lower end of energy intensity among major proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, although the network still used more electricity overall than most of the PoS networks studied. The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimated that Ethereum consumes about 7.87 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually. When adjusted for market value,…

Phantom and Hyperliquid Seek CFTC Clarity on DeFi Infrastructure

Crypto wallet provider Phantom and the Hyperliquid Policy Center have urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to exempt blockchain protocol developers and non-custodial wallet providers from regulations designed for traditional financial intermediaries. In response to a CFTC request for information on regulations affecting fintech firms, the companies asked the agency to confirm that…

Bitcoiners Michael Saylor, Adam Back Oppose BIP-110

Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back have doubled down on their opposition to BIP-110, a proposed temporary fork to limit non-monetary transactions on the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-110 was introduced in December 2025 to stop nonfungible token-like Ordinals inscriptions and other arbitrary data from “spamming” the network and to preserve…

Crypto IPO pipeline slows amid weak market conditions

Despite these headwinds Lopez says regulatory clarity is no longer the primary obstacle for companies considering public listings. “That’s less relevant than before. Companies went public before there was regulatory clarity,” he said. “For companies like Bullish, Circle or BitGo, it’s more about access to capital than regulation.” Kraken’s reported plans to pursue a public…

MiCA Approval Is Not the Finish Line for Crypto Custodians

Getting licensed under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework is only the beginning for crypto custodians, as regulators turn their attention from authorization to operational resilience. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on Wednesday launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) to examine the operational resilience of crypto asset service providers (CASPs),…

Bitcoin’s Recovery Must Come From Fundamentals: Lyn Alden

Bitcoin is facing its weakest sentiment cycle yet, according to Lyn Alden, a Bitcoin-focused macroeconomist who said the asset must stand on its own as Strategy disclosed a $216 million Bitcoin sale earlier this week. “I don’t think there’s anything coming to save Bitcoin,” Alden said in a Tuesday interview with journalist and Bitcoin educator…

Federal Reserve Taps A16z Co-Founder for Monetary Policy Task Force

The US Federal Reserve named Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) co-founder Marc Andreessen to help lead a task force studying how artificial intelligence and other new technologies could affect productivity and jobs. Andreessen will serve on the Fed’s Productivity and Jobs task force alongside Charles I. Jones, a Stanford University economics professor currently on leave at Anthropic,…