Crypto

Data observed across 66 corridors in Africa shows conversion costs from 1.5% to 19% in January, with competition driving pricing gaps. Africa recorded the highest median stablecoin-to-fiat conversion spreads among tracked regions in January, according to data observed by payments infrastructure company Borderless.xyz, covering 66 currency corridors and nearly 94,000 rate observations. The regional median spread was 299 basis points, or about 3%, compared with about 1.3% in Latin America and 0.07% in Asia. In Africa, conversion costs ranged from about 1.5% in South Africa to nearly 19.5% in Botswana.  The data measures “spreads,” or the gap between a provider’s buy and sell rate for a stablecoin-to-fiat pair. Similar to a bid-ask spread in traditional markets, it reflects the execution cost paid when converting stablecoins into local fiat currency.  Read more

Despite a $8.43 million inflow led by Bitwise, SOL’s price continues to bleed amid ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds.

Sam Bankman-Fried seeks a new FTX trial, alleging DOJ witness pressure and citing a declaration disputing the prosecution’s insolvency claims, according to a new filing. Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried claims to have “new evidence“ that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under former President Joe Biden silenced key witnesses in his fraud case, as he pushes for a new trial. “New evidence shows that Biden’s DOJ threatened multiple witnesses into silence or into changing their testimony. My conviction should be thrown out,“ said SBF in his latest X post from prison on Wednesday. He linked to a court filing seeking a new trial under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33. The motion, submitted Thursday, references a declaration from a former FTX employee and follows earlier reporting that SBF is attempting to challenge his fraud conviction through previously unavailable witness testimony. Read more

The product will let institutions use custodied Bitcoin as onchain collateral without moving assets or transferring control, with Morpho set as the initial liquidity partner. Lombard said it plans to launch Bitcoin Smart Accounts, designed to allow Bitcoin held in institutional custody to be used as onchain collateral without moving the asset or transferring control to a third party. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, following a launch this quarter, custodied Bitcoin will be recognized onchain through a receipt token, BTC.b, enabling institutions to access lending and liquidity venues while retaining legal ownership and existing custody arrangements. Lombard said the framework targets asset managers, corporate treasuries and other institutional holders whose Bitcoin (BTC) remains idle in qualified custody. Pilots are underway with select institutional clients, though Lombard has not disclosed customer names or transaction volumes. Read more

The synthetic dollar debuts on Sui Mainnet alongside a permissionless vault seeded by SUI Group and integration with DeepBook’s new margin system.

Big Questions: Has Beijing been amassing a secret war chest of gold so that it can one day dethrone the US dollar via economic warfare?

Big Questions: Has Beijing been amassing a secret war chest of gold so that it can one day dethrone the US dollar via economic warfare?

Big Questions: Has Beijing been amassing a secret war chest of gold so that it can one day dethrone the US dollar via economic warfare?

High TPS figures promise scale, but every additional transaction increases the burden on the very nodes meant to keep networks decentralized. Blockchain transactions per second (TPS) numbers are often treated as a performance gauge, but they don’t tell the full story of whether a network can scale in practice. Carter Feldman, founder of Psy Protocol and a former hacker, told Cointelegraph that TPS figures are often misleading because they ignore how transactions are actually verified and relayed across decentralized systems. “Many pre-mainnet, testnet or isolated benchmarking tests measure TPS with only one node running. At that point, you might as well call Instagram a blockchain that can hit 1 billion TPS because it has one central authority validating every API call,” Feldman said. Read more

Down sizably ahead of the jobs data, bitcoin rose modestly to $67,500 following the news.

XRP looked increasingly bearish at $1.40, with a key indicator suggesting that a downward move below $1 was possible in the coming weeks. XRP (XRP)  has retraced nearly 63% from its multi-year high of $3.66 to trade at $1.36 on Wednesday, a technical setup that may have bearish implications for its price, according to a market analyst.   Key takeaways: XRP appeared bearish below $1.40, with chart technicals pointing to a further drop toward $0.70-$1. Read more

They're promising speeds 500x Solana and 100,000x that of Ethereum, and some of the biggest financial players in the world have taken note.

Ripple’s XRP remains under clear bearish pressure, but instead of accelerating lower, the market has transitioned into a compression phase. The price action is now stabilizing near a key psychological floor, with volatility declining as both sides hesitate to commit aggressively. Ripple Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, XRP’s decisive breakdown below […]

Bitcoin encountered renewed selling pressure at the key $70K resistance level, resulting in a clear rejection. As a result, the price action has transitioned into a consolidation phase above the critical $60K support zone, with further fluctuations likely in the near term. Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, BTC’s rebound from […]

The FCA has begun legal proceedings against the exchange for “illegally promoting crypto asset services to UK consumers.”

Arkham CEO denies shutdown reports as the exchange pivots from a CEX to a fully decentralized model amid record DEX derivatives growth. Arkham Exchange is not shutting down, despite reports to the contrary, and is instead redesigning itself as a decentralized trading platform, the company confirmed to Cointelegraph. The crypto trading platform launched by data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence is shifting from a centralized model to a fully decentralized exchange (DEX), Arkham CEO Miguel Morel told Cointelegraph on Wednesday. Morel’s comments clarify an earlier report from CoinDesk suggesting Arkham Exchange was shutting down. “The future of crypto trading is decentralized, and that’s what we’re building towards,” Morel said. Read more

"Really nice chart, pure strength," one popular analyst stated.

Hong Kong is looking to build its digital assets economy, its leaders said on stage.

Bitcoin’s recent moves track liquidity stress more than Fed rate cuts. Here’s how balance sheet policy and cash flows shape crypto markets. Bitcoin now responds more to liquidity than to rate cuts. While rate cuts once drove crypto rallies, Bitcoin’s recent price action reflects actual cash availability and risk capital in the system, not just borrowing costs. Interest rates and liquidity are not the same. Rates measure the price of money, while liquidity reflects the amount of money circulating. Bitcoin reacts more when liquidity tightens or loosens, even if rates move in the opposite direction. When liquidity is abundant, leverage and risk-taking expand, pushing Bitcoin higher. When liquidity contracts, leverage can unwind quickly, which has often coincided with sharp sell-offs across stocks and commodities. Read more

Last week’s downturn was driven by yen carry trades and macro leverage, highlighting how deeply digital assets are now tied to traditional markets, panelists at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 said.