With market structure moving forward in the US Congress to establish clear roles for the SEC and CFTC over digital assets, Paul Atkins offered his thoughts on the bill. US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins spoke on how the regulator would handle enforcement of digital asset fraud under its “Project Crypto” initiative and legislation pending in Congress. In prepared remarks for a speech on Wednesday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Atkins provided details about the agency’s plans to modernize its approach to regulating digital assets. According to Atkins, the agency plans to consider “establishing a token taxonomy” in the coming months, “anchored” in the Howey test — the standard by which the SEC evaluates securities — to recognize that “investment contracts can come to an end.” Read more
The stablecoin issuer considered stablecoin-denominated gas fees on Arc, but has a long-term goal of shifting to distributed governance. Stablecoin issuer Circle, the company behind the USDC dollar-pegged stablecoin, is planning a native token for its ARC layer-1 blockchain testnet, an enterprise-focused Ethereum Virtual Machine network. Circle launched the Arc testnet in October, with participation from investment bank Goldman Sachs, asset manager BlackRock, credit card company Visa and over 100 other companies. The company, which disclosed plans for the new token alongside its earnings on Wednesday, initially planned to center gas fees on the Arc network around USDC (USDC) and other stablecoins. Read more
Ripple bundles custody, prime brokerage, treasury and stablecoins so institutions can operate like banks with crypto rails. Ripple is spending about $4 billion to combine prime trading, treasury tools, payments and custody into a single integrated setup. RLUSD trials aim to settle real card payments and corporate payouts onchain, then sync results back into ERP and TMS systems. To scale, Ripple needs strong controls with clear reserves, strict compliance checks and transparent accounting rules. Read more
Bitcoin fell to weekly lows at $101,300 as US equities and gold rallied ahead of the key vote to end the US government shutdown, signaling a shift in investor sentiment to traditional assets. US stock markets soared on Wednesday as investors anticipated a US House of Representative vote on a bill to end the government shutdown. Bitcoin (BTC), on the other hand, fell from an intraday high of $105,300 to a weekly low near $101,200, marking a 3.4% decline. Key Takeaways: Bitcoin dropped 3.4% amid renewed flows into equities and precious metals. Read more