“The world looks to New York, and the world looks to [its] Department of Financial Services,” veteran crypto regulator Ken Coghill told a Cornell audience. Love it or leave it, New York State has been a force in crypto regulation. Ten years ago, the state created the United States’ first comprehensive regulatory framework for firms dealing in cryptocurrencies, including key consumer protection, anti-money laundering compliance and cybersecurity guidelines. In September 2015, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued its first BitLicense to Circle Internet Financial, enabling the company to conduct digital currency business activity in the state. Ripple Markets received the second BitLicense in 2016. Circle and Ripple went on to become giant players in the global cryptocurrency and stablecoin industry. Read more
Bitcoin attempts to punish shorters with relentless higher highs on low timeframes, trading places with gold, which follows commodities downhill. Bitcoin (BTC) gained 3% on May 1 as a new month saw shorts struggle to keep price pinned. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $96,955 on Bitstamp, its highest since Feb. 22. Increasingly close to six figures, Bitcoin rose with US stocks at the Wall Street open as Microsoft gained 10% to become the world’s highest-valued public company. Read more
Enterprise-grade custody solutions can safeguard digital assets with multi-layered security and transparency. Opinion by: Vikash Singh, Principal Investor at Stillmark The Bybit hack resulted in the largest loss of funds to cyber hackers by a cryptocurrency exchange in history. It served as a wake-up call for those complacent about the state of security threats in the digital assets space. Everyone must learn the lesson from this heist — enterprise-grade custody solutions require tech to be accompanied by transparency. Unlike many previous incidents, this loss of funds was not due to a faulty smart contract, lost/mismanaged keys or deliberate mismanagement or rehypothecation of user funds, but rather a sophisticated social engineering attack that exploited vulnerabilities in operational security. Read more
Bitcoin’s “base case” for the end of 2025 is $200,000 without further government adoption, Bitwise’s head of research told Cointelegraph. Bitcoin’s expanding institutional adoption may provide the “structural” inflows necessary to surpass gold’s market capitalization and push its price beyond $1 million by 2029, according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch. “Our in-house prediction is $1 million by 2029. So that Bitcoin will match gold's market cap and total addressable market by 2029,” he told Cointelegraph during the Chain Reaction daily X spaces show on April 30. The Bitcoin cycle may also be prolonged when US wirehouses start gaining exposure to Bitcoin and ETFs. Read more
Crypto once sought to replace banks. Now, in the fight over stablecoins, it’s forced to play by the same rules and get the same licenses. Crypto firms are no longer just challenging the traditional financial system they are increasingly becoming part of it. Companies like Circle and BitGo are reportedly pursuing banking charters and preparing for a wave of incoming stablecoin legislation that could further blur the lines between crypto firms and traditional banks. In the US, two major bills the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act and the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act aim to introduce new rules on stablecoin issuers, covering everything from reserve requirements to licensing and compliance obligations. Read more