21 May 2025, 19:57

New Development in GENIUS Bill That Will Determine the Fate of Cryptocurrencies in the US

According to cryptocurrency journalist Eleanor Terrett, the US Senate has voted to open the GENIUS Act for discussion. This landmark stablecoin regulation bill advanced with a 66-32 majority in a preliminary vote on Monday, and was passed with broad support in this morning’s vote of 69-31. With the bill now moving into the formal debate phase, the difficult process of amendments begins. Republican and Democratic senators are lining up to add various additions to the bill. The proposed changes include ethics regulations regarding the Trump family’s crypto connections, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s proposed ban on the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and some language improvements regarding combating money laundering. Related News: 50-year Veteran Analyst Peter Brandt Reveals What He Expects After Bitcoin's Record: He Gives a Price and Date for the Peak The most notable move came from Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, who introduced an amendment to add the entire “Credit Card Competition Act” (CCCA), which was introduced in 2023 and aims to increase competition in the credit card market by requiring major banks to support at least two payment networks, to the GENIUS bill. The bill, which previously failed to pass on its own, is now attempting to be “glued” to the higher-priority stablecoin bill. However, there are objections to this move. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis has made it clear that he will withdraw his support if the CCCA is added to the bill. On the other hand, the American Bankers Association (ABA) is also reacting strongly. The association’s CEO Rob Nichols called the change a “toxic bill,” arguing that it will result in consumers losing their card rewards and increase the risk of fraud. Nichols called out crypto advocates and urged them to side with banks against this addition. The final version of the GENIUS law and whether it will pass or not will become clear through intense negotiations and votes in the coming days. *This is not investment advice. Continue Reading: New Development in GENIUS Bill That Will Determine the Fate of Cryptocurrencies in the US

21 May 2025, 19:53

Stablecoins Are About to Hit ‘Critical Mass’ While 2027 Seen as Pivotal Year

The race to define the future of money is speeding up—and according to industry leaders, stablecoins are right at the center. “It's clear that the most important item on our roadmap is understanding how quickly we can move, and it's obvious that the next three years are the fastest we will ever see in the development of digital assets,” said Sergio Mello, head of stablecoins at Anchorage Digital during Paxos’ Global Dollar Network event in New York City. “2025 will have clarity here, 2026 will have clarity elsewhere, and 2027 is when it’s all going to happen.” Mello wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals. From his vantage point inside one of the first federally chartered crypto banks in the U.S., he sees stablecoins not as niche financial instruments but as a foundational upgrade to the global monetary system. “Stablecoins are a better representation of fiat, a better way to transfer fiat, but it's really just money that you're moving,” he said. “We’re merging the transport layer and the value layer into the same instrument.” This evolution of money is far from theoretical. According to Mello, industry players across payment networks, custodians, and financial service providers are laying the groundwork for what he called a “critical mass” of institutional adoption — something he predicted will hit within the next 12 to 24 months, especially in payments. “That’s where the money is going,” he said. From experiment to infrastructure Stablecoins were once seen as tools for crypto speculators or offshore arbitrageurs. However, according to Raj Dhamodharan, EVP at Mastercard, that perception is shifting fast. Stablecoins now function as the “money movement layer” across increasingly mainstream use cases, he said, adding that cross-border remittances, B2B payments, and even retail spending are already seeing traction. For example, Mastercard is enabling cards where users can choose which currency — fiat or stablecoin — they want to spend, while merchants can choose what they want to receive. “We’ve started doing that with cards. We’ve started doing that with remittances,” Dhamodharan said. Ahmed Zifzaf of Worldpay echoed this, describing how their customers use stablecoins for real-time treasury management. “You can start to see how you accelerate all of these payment and financial flows,” he said, noting that Worldpay is focused on working with “battle-tested” blockchains like Solana to scale those efforts. The bankers’ dilemma Still, not every financial institution is rushing in. “What constraints do you have because you are a bank?” asked Luca Cosentino of Cross River. The barriers are real, he said — legacy tech stacks, compliance risk, and cultural resistance all slow the pace of innovation. But the split in strategy is becoming clear. “Certain banks are not going to touch crypto [...] some others will focus on custody [...] some others are going to be focused on money movements,” he said. “But I have very little doubt that a huge portion of the banks [...] is going to go into crypto one way or another.” Sunil Sachdev from Fiserv noted the same divide. “We had about 12 banks ready to go,” he said, describing how new rules under SAB 121 effectively froze many of those plans. “Then everything, in just one day, kind of closed shop.” But the interest hasn’t gone away, particularly among smaller banks. “The bigger guys seem to be cautious,” he said. “The smaller banks are much more aggressive because they're looking to use this as an opportunity to bring in low-cost deposits. They're looking at this as an opportunity to differentiate themselves.” He painted a vivid picture of how a small-town bank might evolve: three branches, deep community ties, and now a road map to become a “trusted node” in a global blockchain network, offering tokenized financial products not available elsewhere. Better than Fiat While many in the industry assume institutions will lead adoption, Kraken’s Mark Greenberg isn’t so sure. “Americans might be actually some of the last groups to adopt a global dollar,” he said. But outside the U.S., demand is strong. “I do believe a global dollar is better than holding fiat, and we're going to see it,” he said, adding that this is more important in countries where inflation erodes value and yield is scarce. And it won’t just be used for savings. “You save your money there; you use a card there. At some point, you transfer to your friends, you pay your bills,” he said. “And maybe you buy a meme coin or a stock.” Mike Dudas of 6th Man Ventures suggested the app layer will drive consumer behavior. Stablecoins “is the fundamental thing that people need to be able to store value in,” he said. “And now, because of Visa, Mastercard, and off-ramp providers, I can actually spend those dollars I get.” Sheraz Shere of the Solana Foundation added that the infrastructure now exists to support those ambitions. “There’s this assumption that TradFi infrastructure is good,” Greenberg said. “There are outages there [TradFi institutions] too.” Instead of talking up performance, he said the best strategy is to let results speak for themselves. “The less we talk about it, the better it is.” A play to bolster the U.S. dollar's dominance While stablecoins are often discussed through the lens of innovation and financial inclusion, policymakers may be thinking about something more immediate: demand for U.S. debt, according to former CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo. “95% of the driving force behind stablecoin legislation is to create more demand for U.S. Treasuries,” he said. “The remaining 5% is simply working out which regulator gets oversight.” It’s not a crypto-driven narrative, Giancarlo argued. Stablecoins are now being viewed as a way to bolster the U.S. dollar’s global role by digitizing and distributing it at scale. “Stablecoins have demonstrated that the global demand for dollars far outstrips the supply in an analog world, and the beauty of stablecoins is meeting that demand,” he said. Jonathan Levin, CEO of Chainalysis, said banks are entering the space cautiously, with more focus on asset stability and market contagion than most crypto-native firms. “When it comes to banks, they look at it and they're saying: I need to not just understand the stability of my asset, I need to understand the stability of everyone else's assets.” According to Levin, data will be key. Issuers need to track performance across thousands of currency pairs and venues, while also managing risks without compromising decentralization. “That’s a data challenge that is going to be vital,” he said. The Years Ahead As legislative efforts advance in Washington, many panelists agreed that durable rules—on reserves, on-ramps, disclosures — are overdue. But the opportunity ahead is bigger than compliance. “The bottom line is, even if the politicians are focused on demand for treasuries, it’s in the American interest to have the dollar continue to serve as the world’s reserve currency,” Giancarlo said. By the end of the day, one theme cut across all four panels: stablecoins are no longer an experiment. Whether small banks are searching for relevance, corporations are chasing faster settlements, or regulators are responding to Treasury market pressure, the stablecoin ecosystem is moving fast—and the road to 2027 could decide how global finance is wired for the next generation. Read more: Stablecoins Will Expand Beyond Crypto Trading, Become Part of Mainstream Economy, Citi Predicts

21 May 2025, 19:30

US stocks slipped while bitcoin rallied on higher Treasury yields

Bitcoin may have traded like a safe haven asset Wednesday, but analysts warn the trend may not last

21 May 2025, 19:28

Texas Moves Toward Becoming Third State to Establish Bitcoin Reserve, Says Blockchain Council President

Texas is on the verge of establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve, a move that could position it as a leader in the cryptocurrency landscape. This initiative follows a significant legislative

21 May 2025, 19:20

Another crypto founder abducted in Uganda, forced to send $500K crypto at gunpoint

In Uganda, a crypto founder was taken hostage, held at gunpoint, and told to send crypto worth $500,000 to his attackers. This is the latest attempt at kidnapping in the wave of crypto whale kidnappings. The founder of Mitroplus Labs, Festo Ivaibi, was kidnapped on May 17 near his home on Bunamwaya Road in Kampala, Uganda. According to Mitroplus’s Afro Token Project statement, the attackers were armed and dressed in military uniforms. They said they were “security operatives” of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). CRYPTO ABDUCTION IN UGANDA. On Saturday, May 17th 2025, our founder @IvaibiFesto was abducted by individuals posing as security agents( @MODVA_UPDF ) and forced under duress, to release his crypto assets. We thank God he is now safe, and all systems have been secured. This is… pic.twitter.com/ipZkrwTv95 — Afro Token (@AfroTokenSUN) May 19, 2025 Mitroplus Labs described the incident as more than just a personal attack. They said, “ What happened to our founder was not just an attack on one man, it was an attack on innovation, on education, and on the future of Africa’s digital economy.” Two Chinese citizens identified among the attackers Following the incident, Uganda’s revenue agency reportedly granted Ivaibi access to its police command center. This allowed him to review street camera footage in hopes of advancing the investigation. “Police have dismissed these cases, citing unregulated cryptocurrency and individual risk. However, as Mitroplus Labs, we’ve engaged with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on crypto taxation and participated in knowledge-sharing sessions on blockchain, AI, and cryptocurrencies. I’m registered as a cryptocurrency trader with the Revenue Authority, have filed tax returns, and faced penalties for late filings,” Ivaibi said. Mitroplus Labs said the attack is part of a coordinated pattern involving spies pretending to be crypto traders, law enforcement officers, and two Chinese citizens. The company also said that at least 48 similar attacks have been identified, with many cases being dismissed. The targeting of an African crypto entrepreneur comes just days after a failed attempt to abduct the daughter of the CEO of a crypto exchange in Paris, France. Before that, several crypto influencers and individuals known to hold millions of dollars in crypto were also targeted and lost funds to criminal gangs seemingly operating in France. The latest event finally pushed the French government to say it would take steps to protect crypto workers, their families, and the whole industry. In addition, David Balland, co-founder of the hardware wallet company Ledger, was kidnapped and cut up as part of a ransom demand earlier this year. A crypto broker broke both ankles in February while trying to get away from his kidnappers. This month, the father of a crypto entrepreneur was freed by cops after being held hostage and asked for a crypto ransom of almost $8 million. Also, as reported by Cryptopolitan, a young woman and her toddler were attacked in Paris over crypto assets. Crypto leaders are again faced with a critical problem. According to Michael Pearl, vice president of strategy at a blockchain security firm, security methods such as multi-factor authentication could help make “forced transfers harder to execute without alerting others.” Afro Tokens drop after the attack A share of the funds came from Afro Token, a meme coin Mitroplus Labs had issued on the Tron blockchain using the SunPump platform. The attackers sold some Afro Tokens during the attack, which caused the token price to drop for a short time. The statement did say, though, that no community funds were hacked or touched during the attack. Other funds were reportedly sent to a wallet on Binance. On-chain data shows that the token’s value has dropped by about 16.7% since the attack day. Its market cap is now only about $1.6 million, down from over $7.3 million in December of last year. Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More

21 May 2025, 19:01

Bitcoin Backs Off Quickly From Record High as Interest Rate Surge Hits Risk Assets

Bitcoin's BTC surge to a fresh all-time record on Wednesday ran into a brick wall just below $110,000. After hitting a record of $109,754, BTC quickly fell to about 3% to the $106,000 area. At press time, the top cryptocurrency was trading just above $107,000 according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index , modestly lower over the past 24 hours. Other cryptocurrencies took a hit as well, with ether ETH and solana SOL also slightly lower over the last day despite the early Wednesday run higher. The reason behind the price action may be as simple as traders taking profits on the quick rise — bitcoin was higher by nearly 50% since bottoming about five weeks ago. Likely contributing was the ripple effect of a U.S. treasury bond auction going awry and hitting risk assets. A sale of 20-Year bonds sold by the U.S. Treasury department saw weak demand, sending the yield on the 30-year Treasury spiking to 5.07%, its highest level in more than two years. Time bomb The Nasdaq tumbled 1.5% in just an hour shortly after the news, while the S&P 500 declined 1.3%. "This is a ticking time bomb, swept under the rug,” said Josh Mandell, a longtime fixed-income veteran turned bitcoin analyst, prior to this afternoon's poor bond sale. “We used to talk about the disaster that would ensue if ever there was a ‘MISSED AUCTION’ in 30-yr bonds,” Mandell said. “A missed auction means that there were not enough bids to cover the offering… Were it not for the Fed, we would be experiencing a failure to roll over bonds right now which leads to default.” Kirill Kretov, trading automation expert at CoinPanel, said that liquidity from exchanges has been significantly removed since late 2024, "making the market thinner and more reactive," leaving bitcoin's price vulnerable to wild swings. "Structurally, there’s room for explosive upside," he said, but "a sharp correction can happen at any moment." The $110,000 level has emerged as a key battleground in the current market structure, well-followed crypto trader Skew noted in an X post , describing it as the critical zone between a local high and a potential breakout point. According to Skew, there's a noticeable concentration of supply around this level, with Binance perpetuals showing a skewed ask-side order book and a buildup of short positions. "All point to a huge amount of liquidity here, usually pivotal for the market," Skew said.