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State representative Keith Ammon said the New Hampshire executive council's vote against Bitcoin-backed bonds was “short-sighted,” urging the body to reconsider the measure. Policymakers in New Hampshire’s executive council voted against a proposal that would have allowed the state to issue $100 million in bonds backed by Bitcoin (BTC). At a Wednesday hearing, the five-member panel voted 3-2 against the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority’s (BFA) proposed issuance of $100 million in BTC-backed bonds. The proposed investments, which the authority approved in November 2025, already had support from Governor Kelly Ayotte. “It was an extremely short-sighted decision,” said state representative Keith Ammon in a Thursday X post after the vote. “I can't believe I witnessed it in person. They should gather all relevant facts and information and reconsider their vote at a future meeting.” Read more
The launch comes as tokenized stocks become one of the fastest-growing corners of crypto, with exchanges and traditional finance firms racing to expand 24/7 trading. Crypto exchange Backpack has launched 24/7 trading for select tokenized US equities, allowing international investors to trade stocks including SpaceX, Micron and SanDisk around the clock. Under the initial offering, Backpack said that investors would receive direct ownership of the underlying securities rather than synthetic exposure, with trades settling instantly and funded in fiat currency or stablecoins. The initial offering includes a limited selection of US equities, with additional stocks planned. The company also offers Solana-based tokenized versions of the securities, which can be transferred between wallets, used in decentralized finance applications and converted 1:1 into the corresponding shares through Backpack. Read more
Stablecoins are carving out specialized roles as regulation reshapes the market, while Strategy’s Bitcoin sale and Vanguard’s tokenization push highlight crypto’s evolving financial landscape. Crypto’s infrastructure is starting to look a lot more like traditional finance. New data from Dune shows that the world’s stablecoin leaders — Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC — are no longer competing for the same users, with each now dominating a different corner of the market. Meanwhile, demand for MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins is accelerating, hinting that the stablecoin economy is slowly expanding beyond the US dollar. Elsewhere in Crypto Biz, Strategy reignited debate over its “never sell” philosophy after offloading more than $200 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to fund shareholder dividends, while Vanguard signaled that even Wall Street’s biggest crypto skeptics are embracing tokenization. USDT has become crypto’s dominant payments stablecoin while USDC has cemented itself as DeFi’s preferred settlement asset, accord...
Bitcoin price gains came thanks to US whales propeling the Coinbase Premium above a key trend line, new analysis from CryptoQuant reported. Bitcoin (BTC) demand shifts are “behind” the price rebound to $64,000, new analysis claims. Key points: Read more
The Fed named a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen to co-lead an AI productivity and jobs task force under Chair Kevin Warsh’s policy review. The US Federal Reserve named Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) co-founder Marc Andreessen to help lead a task force studying how artificial intelligence and other new technologies could affect productivity and jobs. Andreessen will serve on the Fed’s Productivity and Jobs task force alongside Charles I. Jones, a Stanford University economics professor currently on leave at Anthropic, and Asha Sharma, Microsoft's executive vice president and Xbox CEO. The new task force will assess how general-purpose technologies such as AI will affect employment and productivity to better inform the central bank's policymaking, the Fed said in a Thursday press release. Read more
A MiCA license allows crypto firms to operate in the EU, but the ESMA’s review will test whether custodians can meet the required security and resilience standards. Getting licensed under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework is only the beginning for crypto custodians, as regulators turn their attention from authorization to operational resilience. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on Wednesday launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) to examine the operational resilience of crypto asset service providers (CASPs), placing custody services at the center of the review. “The signal is quite clear: for custodians, a licence is the start line, not the finish,” Sebastien Dessimoz, co-founder and managing partner at digital asset infrastructure firm Taurus, told Cointelegraph. Read more
As the CLARITY Act advances, crypto's growing political influence in Washington is under scrutiny. But the crypto lobby's massive campaign spend is only part of the story. The crypto industry has spent years convincing Washington that it deserves a seat at the table. Now, as Congress inches toward passing the CLARITY Act, a long-awaited crypto market structure bill, it seems it finally has one. The question is no longer whether lawmakers are listening to digital asset advocates, but whether the crypto lobby’s deep pockets and influence in election campaigns will be enough to get the legislation over the line. That debate comes as Senate negotiators work toward a potential floor vote before Congress breaks for its August recess. Read more
US prosecutors charged Rossen Iossifov over the alleged laundering of $290,000 in forfeited crypto from a Kraken account. United States prosecutors have charged a man serving a federal prison sentence over the alleged removal and laundering of about $290,000 in crypto assets held in a Kraken account subject to a forfeiture order. The Department of Justice said on Thursday that Rossen Iossifov, a Bulgarian national, conspired in January 2024 to withdraw and transfer crypto that a federal court had ordered forfeited following his 2021 conviction. Prosecutors allege that the assets were moved through illicit mixing services and crypto exchanges before the US could take possession. The case shows how attempts to move crypto after a forfeiture order can trigger fresh criminal charges, even after the underlying conviction. Read more
Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, are restricting employee prediction market trades as insider trading fears spread across Polymarket and Kalshi. Wall Street banks are restricting employee trading on prediction market platforms due to fears that they may use nonpublic information to trade event contracts. Goldman Sachs has reportedly banned its employees from trading on event contracts that are specific to the bank, including financial markets, macroeconomic events, elections and geopolitics, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Unidentified sources from Morgan Stanley also told CNBC that the bank has policies regarding prediction market trading by employees, while a spokesperson for Bank of America said the bank was in the process of issuing new prohibitive measures for employees on prediction market trading. Read more
Circle announces it received final OCC approval for a national trust bank that will initially serve the company and affiliates, with possible future custody services for institutional clients. USDC stablecoin issuer Circle on Friday announced it received final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish First National Digital Currency Bank (FNDCB), a national trust bank that will operate under the name Circle National Trust. “OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the US financial system,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said. The approval comes after Circle applied for the charter in June 2025, allowing it to establish a federally regulated trust institution and expand its digital asset custody infrastructure. Read more
CRYL is offering Bitcoin-backed loans to individuals and businesses as Japanese firms explore broader uses for BTC in lending and credit markets. Japanese lender CRYL has launched Bitcoin-backed loans of up to 1 billion yen ($6.2 million), allowing individuals and businesses to raise fiat currency without selling their BTC. On Thursday, the company announced that borrowers can access between 1 million yen ($6,200) and 1 billion yen ($6.2 million) at annual rates of 3.5% to 7%. The loans carry collateral ratios of 40% to 60%. They run for one year and can be used for expenses, including taxes, business funding and property purchases. The launch expands Japan’s small market for regulated crypto-backed financing. In 2020, Fintertech, a Daiwa Securities Group and Credit Saison joint venture, launched a similar service and currently lends up to $3 million against Bitcoin or Ether. However, CRYL's service advertises a higher ceiling and a lower minimum, while limiting collateral to BTC. Read more
Bitcoin miner TeraWulf is reportedly seeking $3.5 billion in debt financing led by Morgan Stanley for its Kentucky data center campus leased by AI company Anthropic. US-listed Bitcoin mining company TeraWulf is reportedly seeking to raise $3.5 billion in debt to expand its Justified Data campus in Kentucky, a facility leased by artificial intelligence company Anthropic under a long-term agreement. The deal is expected to launch this year, with investment bank Morgan Stanley leading the financing effort, TeraWulf chief financial officer Patrick Fleury said, according to a Thursday Bloomberg report. The deal could include leveraged loans and high-yield bonds, marking TeraWulf’s first entry into the leveraged loan market, the report stated. Read more
Metaplanet said it is studying Bitcoin-backed digital credit products in Japan with JPYC and Progmat, but no product has been launched. Japanese investment and Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet's securities arm, Metaplanet Securities, stablecoin issuer JPYC and tokenization infrastructure provider Progmatare are tying up on a joint study on Bitcoin-backed digital credit products in Japan. The study involves using BTC as collateral and a credit enhancement tool combined with the Japanese yen-pegged JPY Coin (JPYC) stablecoin for settlement and payments, while security tokens will be used to manage holder rights, Metaplanet said Friday. The joint study will examine whether Bitcoin can be used as collateral or credit enhancement for digital corporate bonds and other credit instruments, with 24/7 accessibility, settlement and daily interest accrual for holders, issued on the blockchain ledger. No product has been launched yet as part of the experiment. Read more
Bitcoin bulls faced "crucial resistance" at $65,000 next as BTC price action diverged from oil and US dollar strength. Bitcoin (BTC) eyed new July highs on Friday as US-Iran peace momentum kept oil lower. Key points: Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing above $64,000, coming within $400 of new three-week highs. Read more
EU lawmakers have again allowed tech firms to scan chats for abuse material, but exempted end-to-end encrypted messages. The European Parliament has passed legislation allowing tech firms to scan messages for child sexual abuse material until 2028, a controversial law dubbed “chat control” by critics. EU lawmakers on Thursday largely voted against extending the regulation, dubbed “Chat Control 1.0,” but stopping it required 361 lawmakers to reject it. Only 314 voted to stop the law, and 276 supported it. The vote advances reviving the “chat control” rules that expired in April, and has been a controversial topic among privacy and cryptography advocates, as the originally designed law breaks the principle behind encrypting messages. Read more
Robinhood’s choice to use Ethereum further solidifies its position as the “ultimate settlement layer and liquidity foundation for tokenized assets,” said HashKey Group’s Tim Sun. The amount of Ether bridged to Robinhood’s new layer-2 blockchain exceeded $70 million in just the first week, according to Token Terminal. Robinhood Chain, an EVM-compatible Arbitrum-based layer-2 network that uses ETH as its native gas token, launched on July 1 with the company describing it as “AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets.” “If adoption continues, the chain could become a meaningful new source of demand for ETH,” said Token Terminal on Thursday. Read more
Zcash’s next upgrade will replace the once-compromised Orchard pool and may offer clues about whether counterfeit tokens were created via a recent bug. Zcash’s Ironwood network upgrade, the solution to an “infinity” bug discovered in May on the privacy-focused blockchain’s main private transaction pool, Orchard, is set to go live on July 28. Announced in June, Ironwood closes the current Orchard pool, prevents new activity in it and sets up a new private pool. Funds leaving Orchard would have to pass through an accounting checkpoint before entering Ironwood, which could produce evidence about whether any counterfeit Zcash (ZEC) tokens were produced through the Orchard bug. “Zcash's Ironwood mainnet activation height has been set and tagged! All of the major organizations are committed to activation of NU6.3 at height 3428143, which is approximately July 28th at 8AM EST,” Zcash core developer Sean Bowe said on Thursday. Read more
The incident is significant for developers and applications that handle Injective wallet workflows, Socket researchers said. Hackers compromised a widely used Injective software package in a supply chain attack with malware designed to steal crypto wallet private keys, adding to a growing attack vector involving attackers using legitimate platforms to deliver malicious payloads. Security firm Socket discovered on Thursday that a popular npm (node package manager) package with around 50,000 weekly downloads used for building on the Injective blockchain was maliciously modified to steal wallet private keys and seed phrases. The large number of downloads makes the incident “significant for developers and applications that handle Injective wallet workflows,” Socket researchers said. The malicious code has since been removed. Read more
“DeFi usually swings much harder than Bitcoin, so holding up this well is unusual,” says Bitwise, as DeFi tokens have outperformed Bitcoin. Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens have held up unusually well against Bitcoin over the past month, suggesting the market may be “quietly re-rating” the sector, says crypto index fund maker Bitwise. Bitcoin (BTC) fell about 22% in June, while Bitwise’s index tracking tokens from major DeFi protocols fell only 4% over the same period, Bitwise said in a report Thursday. “DeFi usually swings much harder than Bitcoin, so holding up this well is unusual, and almost no one is talking about it,” it said. Read more
The soon-to-be former chief legal officer did not announce the details of his next move but said that he would continue working with the Board of Coinbase National Trust Company. Paul Grewal, who has served as Coinbase’s chief legal officer since 2020, announced that he would transition to an advisory role at the exchange starting on July 31. In a Thursday X thread and LinkedIn post, Grewal said Coinbase’s legal vice presidents Molly Abraham and Ryan VanGrack would step into new roles as general counsel and vice chair, respectively, following his departure at the end of the month. Abraham said that she would “take the helm” at the exchange’s legal team. Source: Paul Grewal Read more11869 items