After passing the GENIUS stablecoin bill, Republican leadership on the Senate Banking Committee has turned its sights to digital asset market structure. US Senator Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said the chamber would be aiming to pass legislation for digital asset market structure “before the end of September.” In a Thursday “fireside chat” with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis and White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, Scott said “for the market to function completely,” Congress would need to move forward with legislation for market structure and stablecoins. The senator set a goal of passing a market structure bill by Sept. 30. “You’re the chairman, and we will do as you wish,” said Lummis in response to Scott’s goal for market structure. “We will make sure that we’re ready to do that.” Read more
Over 70 crypto exchange-traded funds are awaiting review from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Bitwise has amended its proposed Dogecoin and Aptos exchange-traded funds to include in-kind redemptions, according to filings on Thursday. The updates come as discussions around altcoin ETFs and redemption structures gain traction with US regulators. In-kind redemptions allow investors to exchange ETF shares directly for the underlying tokens. The mechanism is considered more tax-efficient and can appeal to all types of investors, from institutional to retail. In February, the SEC sought comments on a proposal to allow in-kind creations and redemptions for spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs. During a panel at the Bitcoin Policy Institute on Wednesday, US Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioner Hester Pierce said in-kind redemptions for crypto ETFs are on the horizon. Read more
Meta's latest AI hire follows several developments and partnerships aimed at making the tech giant a leader in the burgeoning sector. Tech company Meta has hired Trapit Bansal, a former key researcher at artificial intelligence company OpenAI, who was central to developing the firm's o1 reasoning AI model. Bansal is the latest ex-OpenAI researcher to join the Meta team, following the addition of Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, according to TechCrunch. The hires are part of Meta's push to expand its AI operations and overhaul the capabilities of its reasoning models by training its AI on real-world scenarios to cultivate intelligence. Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun previously said: Read more