Regulation
Lawmakers complimented the design of crypto as the hearing contended with the idea that what makes crypto at risk for illicit use is exactly what makes it attractive for legal users, too.
Business
The largest U.S. crypto exchange beat analyst estimates for both the top and bottom lines, and its shares jumped almost 14% in after-hours trading.
Blockchain infrastructure firm Witness is intended to help developers combine the flexibility and cost savings of offchain data with onchain security and ownership.
DeFi
Almost 8,300 validators each with 32 ETH are currently waiting in line to begin staking, while 161 validators are trying to exit, a sign of continued interest in restaking.
New data from Chainalysis showed that money sent from illicit addresses dropped 30% from the prior year.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin ETF issuers are buying more than twelve times the amount of Bitcoin than the network can produce in a day. A study of the post-ETF Bitcoin charts from one analyst shows that inflows into these funds leads to a 2% increase in price per day, while the options market suggests traders are betting on a new all-time high this year.
The U.S. Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson confirmed that terrorist groups like Hamas and PIJ are using crypto in relatively small amounts compared to what is being widely reported.
The last time bitcoin hit the $1 trillion market cap level was Dec. 2021.
Ethereum
Some users were upset to find that they were ineligible for the distribution, despite being active on the layer 2 blockchain network.
The House Financial Services Committee hearing settled along partisan lines as lawmakers continued their efforts to crack down on crypto as a tool of criminals.
