What are leveraged ETFs Leveraged ETFs are a special type of exchange-traded fund that uses borrowed money or financial instruments (like options, futures or swaps) to amplify the daily performance of an underlying index. Unlike traditional ETFs that track an index passively, leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) use derivatives, swaps and futures contracts to magnify gains or losses. For example, consider…

Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly in talks with Congressional lawmakers in the United States to help craft stablecoin regulatory policies at the federal level. According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, Tether has been working with representatives Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Financial Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets, and French Hill on the STABLE Act introduced…

New cryptocurrency issuance hit an all-time high in January, sparking concerns among analysts over the lack of investor liquidity in the market. Over 600,000 new cryptocurrencies were launched during January, a 12-fold increase compared to the same period in 2024, according to GeckoTerminal data shared by Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko. “Back…

A higher layer-1 (L1) capacity remains essential for Ethereum, even as the network follows a rollup-centric roadmap, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued in a Feb. 14 blog post. He presented his case for further increases to Ethereum’s gas limit despite a recent agreement that raised it from 30 million to 36 million. Increasing the gas limit allows more…

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force met with several representatives from the cryptocurrency and traditional finance sectors to discuss regulatory issues impacting digital assets in early February. Key themes included staking, clear guidelines for exchange-traded products (ETPs) and a new framework for policing the emerging asset class. According to memoranda available on…

Dubai’s Virtual Assets and Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued a warning about the risks associated with memecoins, cautioning investors against speculative and unregulated assets. On Feb. 13, Dubai’s crypto regulator warned investors that memecoins are high-risk and unregulated. The regulator said these assets are speculative, volatile and subject to market manipulation. VARA wrote: “Many such assets lack intrinsic…

The Ethereum Foundation allocated $120 million of Ether to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, responding to community concerns about the foundation’s reliance on ETH sell-offs for funding. On Feb. 13, the Ethereum Foundation’s multisignature address deposited 4,200 Ether into Compound, 10,000 ETH into Spark and 30,800 ETH into Aave. With ETH hovering at around $2,600, the…

Multinational payment services giant Mastercard reported that it had tokenized 30% of its transactions in 2024; it also recognized stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies’ ability to disrupt traditional financial services. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it achieved significant developments toward its goal of “innovating the payments ecosystem,” including tokenizing transactions,…

US President Donald Trump has officially signed an executive order to place reciprocal tariffs on the country’s trading partners, which included provisions for non-monetary policies and defined value-added taxes (VATs) as meeting the criteria for a reciprocal import tax. President Trump tapped Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of…

The price of Ether jumped 3.5% as CBOE BZX Exchange filed on behalf of asset manager 21Shares to introduce staking to its spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF). Ether jumped 3.5% to $2,776 on the news before pulling back to $2,729 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap. 21Shares wants to stake a portion of Ether…