Seven organizations affiliated with crypto urged a quick confirmation of Brian Quintenz to the CFTC, though nothing was scheduled on the Senate calendar before its recess. Several cryptocurrency and blockchain associations advocating for the industry are pushing for a “prompt confirmation” of Brian Quintenz as chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In a Wednesday letter to US President Donald Trump, representatives from several crypto organizations reiterated their support for Quintenz’s confirmation in the Senate following the president’s nomination. Signatories included the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Association, Decentralization Research Center, DeFi Education Fund, The Digital Chamber, Satoshi Action Fund and Solana Policy Institute Read more
Brevan Howard reportedly managed $34 billion in assets as of April 2025, with the company's digital asset division, set up in 2021, managing $2 billion. Gautam Sharma, the CEO of alternative investment management company Brevan Howard’s digital assets division, is reportedly leaving after five years. The departure could spell changes for the division, which has grown significantly in the past few years and manages $2 billion in assets. According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Brevan Howard has no plans to fill the role. Meanwhile, the company in May promoted Chris Rayner-Cook, former head of global trading and financing at Coinbase, as the digital assets division’s chief investment officer. Brevan Howard’s digital asset division has over 10 portfolio managers, 13 investment professionals and 15 blockchain engineers. Read more
XRP data highlights investor profit-taking and reveals reasons why the altcoin’s price could continue to fall. Key takeaways: XRP confirms a bearish descending triangle on the daily chart, risking an 18% drop to $2.40. Declining daily active addresses signal reduced transaction activity and cooling demand for XRP. Read more
Several solutions have been proposed to bolster Monero’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism to prevent 51% attacks on the network. The Monero community is exploring a potential overhaul of its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to make the network resistant to 51% attacks. Community members suggested several proposals, including localizing mining hardware, switching to a merge mining algorithm, allowing XMR to be mined alongside Bitcoin (BTC) or other major cryptocurrencies, and adopting Dash’s ChainLocks solution. Dash’s ChainLocks uses “randomly selected masternodes” to reach a quorum on the first valid block broadcast by the network, locking the blockchain ledger into place and appending the chain only with blocks verified through the ChainLock system. This would function on top of the existing PoW Consensus. Read more
Bitcoin and Ether are trying to rise from their respective lows, indicating strong buying on the dips. Key points: Bitcoin’s drop has resulted in net outflows from BTC ETFs on Tuesday, but buyers are likely to step in and arrest the decline near $110,530. Ether bulls are trying to flip the $4,094 level into support, indicating a positive sentiment. Read more
US Bitcoin miners face mounting costs and regulatory pressure as the trade war reshapes the industry. The US-led trade war is having major repercussions for the Bitcoin mining industry, with looming disputes with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) potentially exposing American companies to massive liabilities. That was a key takeaway from The Miner Mag’s latest Bitcoin Mining Update, which examined how mining firms are navigating a complex tariff environment shaped by ongoing US-China trade tensions. With the White House modifying tariff rates on several Asian countries, the effective duty now stands at 57.6% on China-origin mining machines and 21.6% on those from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, according to the report. Read more