The ECB and EU central banks want to replace MiCA’s stablecoin bank-deposit requirements with liquidity thresholds, warning that sudden withdrawals could strain lenders. The European Central Bank (ECB) and EU central banks want to replace mandatory bank-deposit thresholds for stablecoin reserves with new liquidity requirements, arguing that large stablecoin deposits could create liquidity risks for banks. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) called for removing rules requiring at least 30% of reserves, or 60% for significant stablecoins, to be held as bank deposits. The proposal came in the ESCB’s response, published Tuesday, to the European Commission’s review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Instead of the existing bank-deposit rules, the ESCB backed minimum liqu…
Glassnode’s Altcoin Cycle Signal printed a new altseason signal after a month of Bitcoin and altcoin market-cap gains. Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise to $86,000 this week has dragged altcoin markets higher as the industry’s market cap reclaimed $3 trillion. Key points:
Bitcoin traded near $86,000 as major altcoins gained, while rising derivatives leverage pointed to growing speculative activity across crypto markets. The cryptocurrency market cap briefly climbed back above $3 trillion earlier on Tuesday as Bitcoin and the biggest altcoins extended a broad rally, while increasing leverage pointed to growing speculative activity. Bitcoin (BTC) traded around $86,000, up about 4.5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Ether (ETH) gained about 2.3% to $2,745, while XRP rose 5.7% to $1.53 and Solana (SOL) advanced 3.6% to $117. BNB gained 1.6%, while Dogecoin (DOGE) was among the stronger large-cap performers, rising about 11%. The total crypto market cap stood just below $3 trillion at the time of writing, up about 4.3% over the previous day.
White hats secured about 40% of the Bitcoin moved in the Coldcard exploit’s second wave, transferring it to a Wyoming trust for victims. White hats have transferred Bitcoin they rescued from wallets exposed by a Coldcard vulnerability to a trust set up to return the funds to victims. A total of 52.37 Bitcoin was moved to an address controlled by Wyoming-based Crypto Recovery Trust, Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn said in an X post on Monday. About 40% of the Bitcoin associated with the second wave was swept by white hats to protect victims’ funds. Thorn said 3.0134 BTC included in the transfer came from addresses Galaxy had not previously tracked. He said the funds were presumably also rescued from wallets affected by the Coldcard flaw, but that Galaxy could not confirm their or…
Solstice CEO Ben Nadareski says deeper liquidity and growing institutional participation could make future crypto bull runs less volatile than previous cycles. Ben Nadareski, CEO of Solana-based decentralized finance platform Solstice, said crypto markets are unlikely to return to the extreme boom-and-bust cycles as deeper liquidity brings stability to digital assets. Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction show, Nadareski said liquidity across major crypto trading pairs has increased significantly, even during bear markets, reducing the conditions that produced sharp price swings seen in previous cycles. He added that crypto is increasingly a market for institutional capital and household wealth rather than speculative trading.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs drew nearly $1 billion on Monday, their largest daily inflow since October 2025, as Bitcoin briefly climbed above $87,000. US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) drew nearly $1 billion in net inflows on Monday, their biggest daily haul of 2026. The funds recorded $998.9 million in daily net inflows, surpassing the previous 2026 high of $844 million on Jan. 14, according to SoSoValue data. Monday’s total also marked the largest daily inflow since Oct. 6, 2025, when US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted more than $1.2 billion. Despite the surge, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have posted about $464 million in net outflows so far in 2026.
Animoca Brands suspended its reverse merger talks with Currenc but said it remains committed to pursuing a listing on a major exchange. Animoca Brands has suspended plans to take the company public through a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Currenc Group. Both parties mutually agreed on the decision after reviewing market conditions and the deal’s projected closing timelines, Animoca announced Tuesday. Under the proposed transaction, Currenc would have acquired Animoca, with Animoca shareholders owning 95% of the combined Nasdaq-listed company.
Treasury named AI among five major transitions expected to reshape Australia’s economy, while Coinbase says the report overlooks the digital financial infrastructure AI agents could eventually need. Australia’s new 40-year economic outlook has identified artificial intelligence as one of five major transitions expected to have a profound effect on the economy, while leaving out any mention of crypto. The latest Intergenerational Report, published on Monday by the Australian Treasury, described agentic AI systems as having become “significantly” more capable, autonomous and widely used — surpassing human-level performance on some benchmarks. The other major transitions are geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, a shift to clean energy and Australia’s industrial transformation toward…
Trueo said Base was the right choice when it launched, as Ethereum gas fees were higher, but said mainnet now offers greater integration potential. Prediction market platform Trueo plans to migrate from Base to Ethereum, citing broader integration opportunities and plans to build the next iteration of its oracle system. The project, which launched on Base in March 2025, said its priority after the migration will be attracting liquidity and launching the next generation of its oracle, the system used to verify real-world outcomes that are used to resolve prediction markets. Trueo said it chose to move from Base to Ethereum because it offered higher integration potential and product upside, while on Base, integrations are limited to the immediate ecosystem.
Kakao Pay and KakaoBank are exploring digital asset opportunities with Fireblocks, including infrastructure for stablecoins. South Korean financial companies Kakao Pay and KakaoBank have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks to explore digital asset opportunities, including stablecoins. Under the agreement, the companies will conduct proof-of-concept tests for digital asset infrastructure suited to South Korea’s regulatory, security and service requirements. The initiative aims to help establish secure onchain infrastructure for the country’s emerging digital asset market. The announcement on Monday did not include a launch, investment or implementation timeline.
The investigation is reportedly examining whether Binance knowingly allowed trading that violated US sanctions on Iran, months after reports first revealed a Justice Department probe. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office is investigating whether Binance knowingly allowed trading that violated US sanctions on Iran, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, providing new details about a Justice Department investigation first reported in March. The Justice Department’s Criminal Division in Washington is also involved in the investigation, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Asked for comment, a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph: “We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for sanctions violations. We fully cooperate with law enforcement, and we remain committed to rooting out and shutt…
Saudi Arabia has left mBridge, a cross-border CBDC platform that has drawn scrutiny from US policymakers, according to the Financial Times. Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency project designed to enable direct transactions between central banks, according to the Financial Times. SAMA, Saudi Arabia’s central bank, joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and ended its participation after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, FT reported, citing a statement from the central bank. SAMA said it had planned to end its participation. MBridge was established in 2021 through a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Em…
Ondo’s new in-kind conversion system allows approved institutions to mint and redeem tokenized stocks and ETFs using the underlying securities instead of cash. Ondo Finance has introduced a way for eligible institutions to convert stocks and exchange-traded funds directly into their tokenized equivalents, or redeem the tokens for the underlying shares. Under the new system, approved institutions can transfer shares from their Alpaca accounts to Ondo through an internal book transfer, with corresponding Ondo Stocks tokens then issued onchain. The process also works in reverse, allowing institutions to redeem the tokens for the underlying shares. The in-kind option adds to Ondo’s existing cash-funded model. Under that system, an institution that already holds the underlying shares must still…
The digital asset-aligned PAC joined other groups to spend more than a combined $300 million in the 2024 Ohio Senate race, resulting in Sherrod Brown’s loss to Bernie Moreno. Fairshake, the political action committee (PAC) funded largely by cryptocurrency companies Coinbase and Ripple Labs, plans to spend $30 million opposing Democrat Sherrod Brown’s bid to return to the US Senate. In a statement to Cointelegraph, Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter confirmed reporting by the New York Times that the PAC initially planned to spend $30 million opposing Brown’s 2026 election bid to represent Ohio in the Senate. Vetter said that the PAC expected to announce additional expenditures before the midterm elections on Nov. 3. Fairshake spent about $41 million supporting Republican Bernie Moreno and…
Circle is bringing Bitcoin-backed borrowing to institutional clients, allowing them to tap BTC holdings for USDC liquidity without selling their Bitcoin. Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Bitcoin-backed borrowing service for institutional clients, allowing eligible Circle Mint customers to use BTC as collateral to borrow USDC through onchain lending markets. The service, called Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, lets customers deposit Bitcoin, mint Circle’s wrapped Bitcoin token cirBTC and supply it as collateral to supported third-party lending markets on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho is the first lending protocol supported, with Circle planning to add Aave and other protocols. The rollout coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday. According to Circle, borrowed USDC is deposited dire…
Bitcoin crossed the $86,000 mark for the first time since late January as falling oil prices and concerns over supply lifted US stocks. Bitcoin (BTC) spiked above $86,000 after Monday’s Wall Street open as US stocks rose amid cooling oil prices. Key points:
Coinbase draws scrutiny after the CLARITY Act stalls, while the SEC moves ahead with tokenized stocks and crypto firms push deeper into payments. The crypto industry spent much of the past two years preparing for regulatory clarity in Washington. This week, one of its biggest legislative priorities hit a major roadblock. The CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate on Tuesday, falling short of the 60 votes needed to bring the bill to the floor for debate. The setback significantly narrows the bill’s path this year, with the Senate calendar tightening ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Strategists say crypto exchanges such as Coinbase may have more at stake than most from the stalled legislation.
Multicoin Capital co-founder Samani expects SOL to surpass Ether’s market capitalization “this market cycle” and argues that “today, no one really uses Ethereum.” Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani predicts more crypto companies will choose to build on Solana over Ethereum due to its ease of use and greater functionality. Solana will flip Ether during “this market cycle,” Samani told Cointelegraph during an episode of Trade Secrets, predicting that Ethereum may gradually lose its edge as the default smart contract network choice for crypto companies. Samani and Multicoin amassed a sizable early position in Solana and he has been one of its strongest proponents for years. His prediction would require a five-fold increase in SOL’s $58 billion market capitalization to surpass Ether’s cu…
Strategy bought 950 Bitcoin for $75.7 million after a two-week pause and spent another $174 million repurchasing its STRC preferred stock. Michael Saylor’s Strategy resumed buying Bitcoin after a two-week pause while continuing to repurchase its STRC preferred stock. Strategy acquired 950 Bitcoin (BTC) for $75.7 million at an average price of $79,670 per coin between Monday and Sunday, according to a Form 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The purchase brought Strategy’s holdings to 846,000 BTC, acquired for about $63.8 billion at an average cost of $75,416 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses. With Bitcoin trading at $84,925 at the time of publication, Strategy was sitting on an unrealized gain of about $8.05 billion on its holdings.
Pontes will expand its services and operating hours gradually, with full implementation expected by 2028 and more participants set to join. The European Central Bank (ECB) launched Pontes, a system that allows financial institutions to settle wholesale tokenized asset transactions in central bank money, providing an alternative to private settlement assets such as stablecoins. The ECB announced Pontes’ launch on Monday as part of the Eurosystem’s strategy for tokenized finance. The system initially offers a core set of services, with full implementation expected by 2028. Tokenization represents assets as digital tokens, typically on distributed ledger technology (DLT) networks. The ECB said it could make wholesale transactions faster and more efficient by combining issuance, trading, settl…
