Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires have reportedly spotted a major market opportunity in the void left by Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) 2023 collapse. They are now planning to launch a new financial institution — named after a Lord of the Rings reference — to serve crypto companies and startups that have struggled to secure…

DeFi protocol Ondo Finance has completed the acquisition of Oasis Pro, an infrastructure provider for real-world assets (RWAs), in a move the company said would strengthen its tokenized security offerings in the United States. Oasis Pro is a broker-dealer, Alternative Trading System (ATS) and Transfer Agent (TA) registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission…

What is quantum technology? Quantum technology can process an enormous amount of data and solve complex problems in seconds rather than decades. Remarkably, quantum technology first appeared in the early 1900s. It originated from quantum mechanics, a branch of physics that examines how matter and energy behave at extremely small scales, such as atoms and…

US Senator Cynthia Lummis submitted a draft bill on Thursday, outlining several provisions to overhaul the tax code and exempt certain digital asset transactions from taxation after crypto amendments failed to appear in the budget package. The bill proposes a de minimis exemption for digital asset transactions and capital gains of $300 or less, with a $5,000…

USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, has been losing market share against its main rival, Tether’s USDt, on the major payment platform BitPay in 2025. After dominating stablecoin transactions on BitPay in 2024, Circle’s USDC saw its transaction share plummet against Tether’s USDt, according to BitPay data shared with Cointelegraph. In January 2024, USDC’s transaction…

The European Central Bank (ECB) has approved a two-track plan to settle distributed ledger technology (DLT) transactions using central bank money, which could pave the way to modernizing Europe’s financial system. The first track, dubbed Pontes, will focus on a short-term solution by linking blockchain-based DLT platforms with TARGET Services, a suite of financial services developed and…

Crypto firm Ripple Labs is applying for a banking license in the US, following a similar move by stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group as crypto firms look to be regulated to deepen ties with traditional finance. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed on X on Wednesday that the company is applying for a license with the US Office…

The United States’ first Solana staking exchange-traded fund (ETF) ended its debut trading day with $12 million in inflows — a positive sign for crypto staking-enabled ETFs. The REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF debuted on the Cboe BZX Exchange on Wednesday, recording $33 million in trading volume and $12 million in inflows, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The fund, trading…

Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, is reportedly planning to allow its clients to store cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin next year. Deutsche Bank plans to launch a digital assets custody service in 2026 in collaboration with the technology unit of Austria-based Bitpanda crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The crypto custody service’s development will also involve Deutsche Bank-backed Swiss technology…

Asset manager Grayscale received approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday to convert its Digital Large-Cap Fund into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The fund consists of the five biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization featured in the CoinDesk Five Index. Roughly 80.2% of the weighted fund is Bitcoin (BTC), followed by Ether…