The latest stablecoin move comes years after Meta first dipped its toes into stablecoins through Libra in 2019, before scrapping the plans in 2022 due to regulatory pushback. US tech giant Meta has launched USDC payouts for creators on its platforms in the Philippines and Colombia, with plans to expand to additional markets. Creators who opt into the service will receive payments directly into crypto wallets on the Solana and Polygon blockchains. However, Meta does not offer a built-in conversion option, so an external exchange is required to convert USDC into fiat currency, according to the announcement on Wednesday. The service is currently available only to select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, but Polygon said Wednesday that the stablecoin rollout is expected to expand to more jurisdictions soon. Read more
Republican Senator Thom Tillis says the Senate’s version of the CLARITY Act has “made a lot of progress,” and it was time for lawmakers to vote on advancing the bill. US Senator Thom Tillis says he will push the Senate Banking Committee to advance the stalled crypto market structure bill, as the text of the bill has made progress and is ready for another vote. Tillis, a key Senate Banking Republican, told reporters on Wednesday that he would ask Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott “to move forward with scheduling a markup” when the Senate is back in session on May 11. “I think that we've made a lot of progress,” Tillis said. “But at the end of the day, until you have a forcing mechanism of a markup, everybody that really doesn't want it done is going to have one more thing that they want to talk about, and I think it's time to get it before the committee, move it forward.” Read more
The move expands DeFi institutional assets to include Wall Street heavy hitters. Centrifuge is bringing tokenized Treasurys, AAA-rated CLOs and private credit to the Monad blockchain, making for the first availability of institutional-grade assets on the network. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the integration includes tokenized products from Janus Henderson and Apollo Global Management, including JTRSY, JAAA and ACRDX, with investors holding onchain fund shares that represent direct claims on the underlying assets and support in-kind redemptions. Centrifuge is also introducing freely transferable versions of these assets (deJTRSY, deJAAA and deCRDX) designed for use across the Monad ecosystem in lending, collateral and secondary market activity. Read more
MARA's shares jumped as it added a 505-MW power plant and data center site to expand into AI infrastructure. Bitcoin miner MARA said it agreed to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power for about $1.5 billion, adding a 505-megawatt gas-fired power plant and a co-located data center site in Ohio. The company's Nasdaq-traded shares surged more than 12% following Thursday's announcement, extending a broader rally that has seen the stock gain about 55% over the past month, according to Yahoo Finance data. Source: Yahoo Finance Read more
The product lets investors access diversified exposure across digital assets and equities without managing individual positions. Kraken has launched a new product that bundles cryptocurrencies and tokenized US stocks into pre-built, auto-rebalanced portfolios, as it seeks to attract non-US investors looking for multi-asset exposure within a single investment. The bundles combine digital assets with the company’s xStocks offering, tokenized representations of US equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with allocations set and automatically rebalanced. According to Thursday's announcement, the portfolios include combinations such as Bitcoin (BTC) paired with an S&P 500 index tracker and baskets of major technology stocks alongside cryptocurrencies, offering exposure to both asset classes within a single product. Read more