Japan sanctions crypto exchange Garantex in a wider Russia package
Tokyo added 33 entities and nine individuals to its asset-freeze list and restricted services to 35 vessels.
Crypto & Financial Engineering
Stablecoin issuers step into the Treasury demand China gave up
A San Francisco Fed paper finds issuers have replaced 40% of the US Treasury demand lost as foreign official holdings fell.
Stablecoin issuers added about $200 billion in Treasury holdings, San Francisco Fed says
Research cited across crypto outlets sets issuers’ bill buying against a decline in China’s holdings of US government debt.
Treasury Opens a State Path for Stablecoin Oversight Under the GENIUS Act
An interim rule lets states file certifications before their own rules are finished, as a San Francisco Fed study put issuers’ Treasury holdings near 200 billion dollars.
Treasury lets states file stablecoin certifications before their rules are final
The first rule written under the GENIUS Act sets out forms and review procedures and allows conditional state filings while legislatures finish their work.
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase consortium launches Open USD stablecoin
A new issuer backed by the card networks and the largest payment processors brought a dollar-pegged token to market on Wednesday, entering a stablecoin sector dominated by Tether and Circle.
Senate report says Iran used Tether’s stablecoin to evade sanctions
Investigators called USDT a significant financial lifeline for Tehran and referred the matter to the Treasury and the Justice Department.
Senate report says Iran leaned on Tether’s stablecoin to move money around sanctions
Investigators for Senate Democrats describe USDT as a financial lifeline for Tehran, and have asked Treasury and the Justice Department to act.
Senate report calls Tether’s USDT a primary illicit payment system for Iran
A subcommittee investigation found the stablecoin at the centre of Iran’s shadow banking network, and a senator has asked Treasury and the Justice Department to investigate.
Senate report says Iran used Tether’s USDT to move money around sanctions
Senate Democrats say most Iran-linked sanctioned wallets ran on the largest stablecoin, and Tether says it has helped freeze hundreds of millions of dollars.
Fed proposes two stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act
The Board would require full reserve backing and capital charges from payment stablecoin issuers, and make supervised banks seek approval before issuing through subsidiaries.
Bitget halts withdrawals after a hack the exchange blames on North Korea
Reported losses range from $350 million to $387.5 million, and only about $318,000 has been frozen.
US prosecutors seize bank accounts of a payments firm handling Tether flows
The seizure at a Caribbean lender has left funds belonging to the world’s largest stablecoin issuer stuck, and the reported size of the action differs between accounts.
SoftBank sells the largest high-yield bond on record to fund its OpenAI stake
The group raised 11.1 billion dollars in dollar and euro bonds to pay for the final tranche of an investment it has now committed 64.6 billion dollars to.
The Fed proposes its stablecoin rulebook under the GENIUS Act
The Federal Reserve Board issued two proposals covering payment stablecoin issuers it would supervise, setting out reserve composition and capital requirements and opening them for public comment.
Treasury weighs a public-private push to spread dollar stablecoins abroad
The administration is considering overseas ventures that would extend dollar use and create fresh demand for Treasury bills.
ECB Asks Brussels to Scrap the MiCA Reserve Rule That Kept Tether Out of the EU
Europe’s central banks want the bank-deposit floors for stablecoin reserves removed, endorsing a risk argument Tether first made two years ago.
ECB and EU Central Banks Push to Scrap MiCA’s Stablecoin Deposit Rule
Europe’s central banks want the requirement that large issuers hold most reserves in commercial bank deposits deleted from the bloc’s crypto rulebook.
Bitcoin tops $85,000 for the first time since January
Crypto rallied into a hawkish Federal Reserve and a failed US market-structure bill, with ETF flows turning positive and short positions liquidated.
The ECB Opens a Central Bank Settlement Rail for Tokenised Assets
Pontes went live on Monday, letting eurozone banks settle tokenised securities in central bank money rather than in private tokens.
Bitcoin tops $85,000 as a four-day oil slide lifts risk assets
The move extends a rally that ran through the Federal Reserve’s rate rise, with quoted prices varying widely across the session.
Crypto’s market-structure bill dies in the Senate as the industry turns on itself
The CLARITY Act failed by a single vote, leaving digital-asset rules to the SEC and the CFTC under authority they already hold.
With the CLARITY Act blocked, the CFTC sends crypto rules to the White House
Market structure for digital assets is now being written by an agency after the Senate stalled the bill.
Lagarde personally pressed Greece to block Binance’s EU licence, the Journal reports
The ECB president intervened against an application that would have given the exchange passporting rights across the bloc, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US sanctions the bitcoin exchange behind Iran’s Strait of Hormuz toll booth
The Treasury says an Iranian exchange moved payments for the authority that charges tankers to cross the strait, and that foreign firms dealing with it now face secondary sanctions.
SEC opens a tokenised-stock exemption after the crypto bill stalls
With the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act blocked in the Senate, the SEC and CFTC say they will write crypto rules under existing authority, and JPMorgan warns those rules may not hold.
CLARITY Act dies in the Senate and the agencies say they will write the rules anyway
Crypto market-structure legislation failed by one vote, and the SEC and CFTC immediately said they would act without Congress.
CLARITY Act dies in the Senate, pushing crypto rulemaking back to the agencies
A 49 to 50 procedural vote sank the industry’s main legislative bet, and the SEC and CFTC now hold the pen.
Sanctioned oil money and the stablecoin rails it runs on
Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of $61 million in crypto tied to Iranian oil sales, in a case that puts a stablecoin issuer and an exchange at the centre of sanctions enforcement.
Senate blocks the CLARITY Act and crypto assets fall
The industry’s top legislative priority failed to advance, sending bitcoin and listed crypto intermediaries lower.
CLARITY Act Stalls in the Senate, Sending Coinbase and Circle Lower
The crypto industry’s top legislative priority failed its procedural vote, and the shares that had priced in regulatory clarity fell with it.
Senate Votes on CLARITY Act as Banks Fight Stablecoin Reward Rules
A cloture vote needing 60 votes will decide whether the biggest US crypto bill advances, with community banks and the Treasury fighting over stablecoin yield.
Crypto market structure bill faces a make-or-break Senate vote
The CLARITY Act reaches a cloture vote on Tuesday after Republicans added ethics language Trump accepted and a compromise on stablecoin yield that banks are still fighting.
Trump concedes on crypto ethics rules as the Senate heads for a CLARITY Act vote
The revised draft hands Treasury a stablecoin circuit breaker and gives state attorneys general new enforcement powers.
Ripple pitches its RLUSD stablecoin at the corporate treasury market
The token’s supply has passed $2.4 billion as Ripple aims it at company cash management rather than trading.
Senate heads for a test vote on the CLARITY Act crypto bill
A procedural vote on Tuesday will show whether the market-structure bill dividing SEC and CFTC authority can clear the Senate.
India and Russia explore digital-currency settlement as bilateral trade nears $60 billion
Russia’s central bank is working with the Reserve Bank of India on a mechanism to settle trade in central bank digital currency.
Tether Moves From Treasury Bills Into Private Credit
The stablecoin issuer and Fasanara Capital have seeded a $400 million lending fund aimed at raising $3 billion from institutions.
Tether Takes Its Stablecoin Into Private Credit
A $400 million fund with Fasanara Capital routes USDT settlement into private lending, with a stated target of $3 billion from institutions.
Trump’s Peace Envoy Disclosed $107 Million From the Family Crypto Venture
Steve Witkoff’s filing lands while Senate Republicans say the crypto market-structure bill is likely to fail over ethics language.
Tether anchors a $400 million private credit fund with Fasanara
The stablecoin issuer is deploying reserves into small-business lending settled on its own token rails.
Bitcoin’s Liquid Network reports a $320 million hack as a Tether-backed exchange folds
A sidechain of the Bitcoin network says $320 million was withdrawn in a hack, days after a Tether-backed Chilean exchange shut down over a custody shortfall.
Tether aims to become a top-five buyer of US Treasuries
The stablecoin issuer holds more than $122 billion in Treasury bills and wants a larger place in the government’s funding.