Bitwise’s Matt Hougan says it was “pretty hard to engage with advisers on Bitcoin” during recent discussions, who are more interested in stablecoins and tokenization. Advisers to some of the largest financial institutions are taking more of an interest in stablecoins and tokenization than in Bitcoin, which could help pull crypto out of its current slump, said Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan. Hougan said in a note on Wednesday that he recently spoke with more than 40 advisers who were “still interested in crypto” but are “more interested today in stablecoins and tokenization than they are in Bitcoin.” “It was pretty hard to engage with advisors on Bitcoin this week,” he said. “In call after call, they expressed much more curiosity over the real-world applications of crypto that are quickly reshaping everything from capital markets to global payments.” Read more
“Pliny the Liberator,” says he has been “cleverly finding the holes in the fence that the thought police missed,” in the newly launched Fable 5. An artificial intelligence and cybersecurity researcher claims to have jailbroken Anthropic’s latest AI model, Claude Fable 5, within just 48 hours of it being launched. “Pliny the Liberator,” a well-known figure in the AI community, said on Wednesday he “liberated” Fable 5, launched on Tuesday as a safety-tuned version of the more powerful Mythos model that Anthropic said was too dangerous to release widely. He used various techniques, including a jailbroken version of Opus 4.8, to bypass the built-in safeguards that Anthropic installed on the model to prevent users from asking it for potentially harmful information, such as drug-making formulas or hacking instructions. Read more
The UK-regulated digital asset platform said its new system allows interest payments to follow tokenized securities in real time, with payouts distributed continuously in USDC. Archax has introduced real-time yield payments on Hedera, enabling interest generated by tokenized securities to be distributed continuously in USDC. The system allows interest payments to update automatically as tokenized securities move between wallets. According to Archax, cash flows are transferred alongside the underlying asset, allowing yield to follow ownership in real time. Most tokenized securities continue to distribute interest through periodic payments, similar to traditional financial products. Archax said its system allows cash flows to accrue and settle continuously, supporting applications such as real-time coupon payments and revenue-sharing arrangements. Read more
The companies are pairing MXNB and RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to support institutional payments between the United States and Mexico as stablecoin adoption grows across Latin America. Bitso is expanding its payments partnership with Ripple by bringing its Mexican peso-backed MXNB stablecoin onto the XRP Ledger, where it will be used alongside Ripple USD (RLUSD) to support enterprise cross-border settlement between the United States and Mexico. Mexico City-based Bitso said it will issue MXNB on the XRP Ledger where it will be integrated into Ripple's Payments on DEX infrastructure and paired with RLUSD stablecoin for dollar- and peso-denominated settlement of enterprise payments. Money transfers between the US and Mexico comprise the single largest remittance corridor in the world, according to the US Federal Reserve. American goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $935.1 billion in 2024, up 5.5% from 2023, according to the White House Office of the US Trade Representative. Read more
The bipartisan bill envisions the Justice Department leading a task force to coordinate crypto theft investigations, support local law enforcement and improve blockchain forensics efforts. US lawmakers have introduced legislation that would create a Department of Justice-led task force to coordinate investigations into cryptocurrency theft, scams and other digital asset-related crimes across federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Under the proposal, the Justice Department would serve as the primary federal coordinator for cryptocurrency theft investigations, bringing together agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The bill introduced by Republican Representative Lance Gooden and his Democratic House colleague Josh Gottheimer directs the task force to develop best practices for evidence collection, blockchain forensics, asset tracing and victim support. It would also provide training and technical assistance to st...