Ireland’s Government Proposes Crypto Safeguards in Response to Risks

Latest NewsPublishedJun 18, 2026 For the first time in seven years, the Irish government released an assessment related to digital assets, noting risks from money laundering, terrorism financing, sanctions violations and bribery. The government of Ireland is taking aim at digital assets used in money laundering and terrorism financing as it moves to implement industry…

Goldman Sachs Cuts Gold target by $500 on Fed Rate Cut Delay

Goldman Sachs lowered its year-end gold forecast by $500 an ounce, citing expectations that the US Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates this year.  The revised target places gold at $4,900, down from earlier estimates of $5,400. It comes on the assumption that the next Fed cuts could be pushed to March 2027 and December…

Travala Launches AI Hotel Booking Protocol With USDC on Base

Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has launched a protocol it says lets artificial intelligence agents search, reserve and pay for hotels with USDC (USDC) on layer-2 blockchain Base, extending agentic AI stablecoin payments into travel bookings. The Travala Travel MCP is live through Claude Desktop, with outside developers able to integrate it into their own…

Standard Chartered: Ethereum Metrics Strong, Price Lags

Standard Chartered says Ethereum’s network activity remains close to record levels even as Ether (ETH) trades far below last year’s highs, arguing that the gap between usage and price could eventually narrow. Ethereum’s internal metrics, including transaction counts and total value locked in ETH terms, remain close to record levels, according to a Thursday report…

AI is making crypto security cheaper, faster and harder to ignore

Urbelis said he believes AI could eventually reshape the standard of care around smart contract development. Historically, teams could point to the cost and complexity of audits as a reason certain reviews were not performed. That argument becomes more difficult when sophisticated security analysis is available on demand. “A clean AI report will be seen…

Crypto Industry Looks to Stablecoin and DeFi Revisions in MiCA 2.0

In May, the European Commission opened a comment period, seeking feedback on regulations for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.  The comment period will precede eventual revisions and additions to the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislative framework. Some have already dubbed the expected new framework “MiCA 2.0.” Katie Harries, director and head of policy for…

Bitcoin Activity Nears Record Highs as Microtransactions Surge: CryptoQuant

Microtransactions below 0.01 Bitcoin (BTC) now account for roughly 80% of all daily transactions on the network, pushing transaction activity close to record highs despite weak price performance. The surge has pushed CryptoQuant’s Bitcoin “Network Activity Index” into positive territory for the first time since 2024, according to a Thursday report by the blockchain data…

Pudgy Penguins Pushes Beyond NFTs With Target Card Launch

Non-fungible token (NFT) project Pudgy Penguins has expanded the retail reach of its trading card game through a nationwide rollout at Target stores in the US.  According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the launch of Vibes Series 3 marks the game’s biggest retail expansion to date and brings the total number of circulated…

ERC-7943 Author Says Institutions Can’t Play Defi’s ‘Pirate Game’

For years, crypto has thrived on speculative capital flows and the explosive popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens and applications. That still holds true for rising sectors such as perpetual decentralized exchanges and prediction markets. But as Wall Street pushes deeper into tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), not all of the industry’s existing systems cater to…

BlockShoals Explains Binance’s Philippine Regulatory Status

Binance is allowed to provide crypto trading access to users in the Philippines through its arrangement with BlockShoals Technologies, but neither company is authorized to handle peso transfers or perform other activities regulated by the country’s central bank, according to legal adviser Marie Antonette Quiogue. Quiogue, head of legal at BlockShoals, told Cointelegraph in an…