AI Surveillance Marks a New Phase for South Korea’s Crypto Markets

South Korean regulators are stepping up oversight of the domestic cryptocurrency market, signaling a faster, more coordinated approach to detecting suspicious trading activity amid renewed volatility.  The heightened scrutiny was highlighted after South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it was reviewing sharp price movements in the ZKsync token listed on Upbit, following extreme volatility … Read more

Bitcoin ETFs ‘Hanging In There’ Despite Price Plunge: Analyst

US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) holders are showing relatively firm conviction despite a four-month Bitcoin downtrend, according to ETF analyst James Seyffart. “The ETFs are still hanging in there pretty good,” Seyffart said in an X post on Wednesday. While Seyffart said that Bitcoin (BTC) ETF holders are facing their “biggest losses” since the … Read more

Crypto Firms Offer Compromises To Save Stablecoin Yield Bill

Some crypto companies have proposed giving community banks a bigger stablecoin role as Senate negotiations stall over the contentious market structure bill. Crypto companies are reportedly floating concessions relating to stablecoin yields in an attempt to unfreeze the delayed crypto market structure bill.  The legislation passed the House but has stalled in the Senate as … Read more

CFTC Pulls Proposal Banning Sports Prediction Markets

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has withdrawn a Biden administration-era proposal that would have banned sports and political prediction markets, some of the most popular event contracts today. The recently confirmed CFTC chair, Mike Selig, said on Wednesday that the agency has withdrawn a 2024 notice of proposed rulemaking that sought to ban event … Read more

$2.9B Bitcoin ETF Outflow, Bearish Futures Data Project More BTC Downside

Key takeaways: Heavy outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and massive liquidations show that the market is purging highly leveraged buyers. Bitcoin options metrics reveal that pro traders are hedging for further price drops amid a tech stock sell-off. Bitcoin (BTC) slid below $73,000 on Wednesday after briefly retesting the $79,500 level on Tuesday. This downturn … Read more

Stacks and Fireblocks Partner To Bring Bitcoin-Based DeFi to Institutions

Fireblocks, an institutional-grade crypto infrastructure company, announced on Wednesday that it will integrate Stacks, a decentralized finance (DeFi) layer for the Bitcoin protocol, to give institutional clients access to lending and yield-bearing opportunities. The integration bypasses the 10-minute Bitcoin block time by leveraging the Stacks blockchain, which has an average block time of about 29 … Read more

Ethereum L2 Builders Debate Scaling Role After Vitalik’s Rollup Rethink

Several layer-2 builders responded after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the original vision of L2s as the primary scaling engine “no longer makes sense,” calling for a shift toward specialization. In a Wednesday post, Buterin argued that many L2s have failed to fully inherit Ethereum’s security due to continued reliance on multisig bridges, while the … Read more

Bitwise to Acquire Chorus One as Crypto Staking Demand Accelerates

Bitwise Asset Management is reportedly acquiring institutional staking provider Chorus One, extending its push into cryptocurrency yield services. The acquisition adds a major staking operation to the crypto asset manager’s platform as demand for onchain yield products increases among both retail and institutional investors. Chorus One provides staking services for decentralized networks and currently has … Read more