Bitcoin Heads Toward New Local Highs As US CPI Brushes Off Gas-Price Surge

Bitcoin (BTC) tagged $73,000 following Friday’s Wall Street open as crucial US inflation numbers came in below expectations. Key points: Bitcoin edges higher as US CPI data remains slightly below market expectations. Gasoline prices see a historic surge within the CPI release. Bitcoin traders plan out key resistance levels overhead. BTC price seeks new local … Read more

Bitget Rolls Out SpaceX-Linked Pre-IPO Proxy with Republic

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has launched IPO Prime, a proxy offering tied to the pre-initial public offering (IPO) phase of Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX. Bitget said Friday that IPO Prime will start with preSPAX, a Republic-issued token designed to give retail users economic exposure tied to SpaceX’s post-IPO performance. The exchange … Read more

Hong Kong Issues First Stablecoin Issuer Licenses

Hong Kong has issued its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation under a new regulatory framework overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).  The HKMA announced the initial batch of licensees on Friday, marking the first approvals under its stablecoin regime.  Anchorpoint Financial is the stablecoin … Read more

OKX, HashKey Back VPBank’s CAEX in Vietnam Crypto Pilot

CAEX, a crypto platform linked to the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) ecosystem, said OKX Ventures and HashKey are backing the company as it seeks to qualify for Vietnam’s pilot regime for crypto exchanges. CAEX said Friday that the two offshore companies will join VPBank Securities (VPBankS) and technology partner LynkiD as shareholders. … Read more

Ex-SEC, Coinbase Staffer Becomes Securitize President

Newly appointed company president Brett Redfearn briefly worked as Coinbase’s head of capital markets and served for more than three years at the SEC. Tokenization platform Securitize has named Brett Redfearn as president, with the former official at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also joining its board of directors. Securitize’s Thursday notice said … Read more

TON Gets Catchain 2.0 Consensus Upgrade, Block Times Slashed to 400MS

The Open Network (TON), an independent layer-1 blockchain that has integrations with the Telegram messaging application, said it has slashed block times to 400 milliseconds with the release of its Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade. Payment transactions now settle in about 1 second, while trades settle in “real time,” and decentralized applications will now operate at … Read more

Operation Atlantic Freezes $12M in Crypto Scam Proceeds

Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have frozen millions of dollars tied to crypto scams in a joint enforcement operation called Operation Atlantic. The operation, focused on phishing attacks, took place in March and was coordinated by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and … Read more