House GOP Moves to Limit Lawmakers’ Prediction Market Betting

Republicans in the US House of Representatives are moving to add prediction market restrictions to a stalled congressional stock trading ban, as lawmakers scrutinize whether members of Congress should be allowed to wager on elections or public policy. House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil plans to attach prediction market provisions to H.R. 7008, the House’s … Read more

Visa Tests Private Stablecoin Settlement on Canton Network

Visa is testing whether privacy-enabled blockchain networks can support institutional stablecoin settlement without exposing sensitive transaction data, in a proof of concept with stablecoin infrastructure company Brale and the Canton Network, a permissioned ledger backed by major Wall Street firms. The project, announced Thursday, uses SBC, a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, to simulate … Read more

Bitcoin Sellers Face ‘Exhaustion’ as They try to Force BTC Below $60,000

Bitcoin (BTC) extended losses after Friday’s Wall Street open as traders prepared for a retest of $60,000. Key points: Bitcoin begins a battle to protect $60,000 support as sell-side pressure refuses to cool. Analysis sees early signals that “seller exhaustion” is here. US nonfarm payrolls data produce a stronger-than-expected picture of US labor market conditions. … Read more

Saylor Says Bitcoin Needs Disciplined Expansion as Demand Resets

Strategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor said Bitcoin needs “disciplined expansion” through banks, companies, securities, credit and capital markets, laying out a path for the asset as spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows and a broader market sell-off test institutional demand. On Friday, Saylor published an essay, saying Bitcoin’s base layer should be treated as … Read more

Pump.fun Bounty Platform Pays Users for Bizarre Memecoin Stunts

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun introduced a new open bounty platform where users have posted crypto rewards for bizarre promotional tasks, such as tattooing the ticker symbols of memecoins, quitting their current job live on camera or skydiving into a World Cup match. Pump.fun introduced the new platform on Thursday, positioning it as an open marketplace … Read more

Kraken Opens SpaceX IPO Access Through xStocks Platform

Crypto exchange Kraken is giving customers access to the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering through xStocks, a tokenized equities platform, highlighting the growing convergence between crypto infrastructure and traditional capital markets. Kraken announced Friday that SpaceX will be the first public offering available through xStocks IPO Access, which allows eligible users to participate in the … Read more

Crypto Tax Proposals Weighed Ahead of Tuesday House Hearing

The US House Ways and Means Committee circulated seven discussion drafts of bills to address digital asset taxation ahead of a Tuesday hearing on the matter, covering stablecoins, staking, mining and transactions. Among proposals in the draft legislation are reducing the tax paperwork required for crypto holders, providing clarity for mining and staking tokens and … Read more

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 … Read more