ZEC drops 30% after Anthropic AI finds Zcash counterfeit vulnerability
ZEC market capitalization fell by almost $3 billion over the past 24 hours following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability, despite it being patched already.
Crypto
Senate Republicans push finance watchdogs to clarify crypto capital rules
Senator Cynthia Lummis has led a group of lawmakers urging financial regulators for “fair capital treatment for on-balance sheet treatment of digital assets.”
Comptroller says only Democrats pressuring over crypto trust charter
US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould and New York Representative Gregory Meeks sparred over Donald Trump’s influence on regulators he has nominated as president at a Thursday oversight hearing.
AI Is Already Developing AI, Says Anthropic—And Humans May Be Slowing Things Down
Anthropic says AI now writes most of its code and runs increasingly complex research tasks, leaving people to decide which problems are worth solving.
Republican Lawmaker Plans to Add Prediction Markets to Congressional Stock Ban Bill
Rep. Bryan Steil said he’ll add language to the House congressional stock ban bill to cover prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi.
Bitcoin fell 21% after Strategy’s debt buyback news— Is a Terra Luna-style doom loop next?
Bitcoin price collapsed as Strategy faced tighter liquidity conditions and paused its BTC buying. Is it time to jump ship, or buy the dip?
Russia targets British 17-year-old for alleging digital assets were skirting sanctions
Political activist Bill Browder, the teenager’s father, said his son was “the first high school student in the world to be sanctioned by an authoritarian regime” over a report on the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5.
‘Looksmaxxing’ Trend Spawns $100M Gray Market Fueled By Bitcoin, Stablecoins: Chainalysis
Demand for peptides fueled by the “looksmaxxing” trend has spawned a $100 million gray market paid for primarily with crypto.
Professional investors dumped 52K BTC worth of ETFs in Q1, filings show
US spot Bitcoin ETF ownership shifted during the market downturn as hedge funds exited positions, while banks and long-term allocators continued building exposure.
Crypto Clarity Act in spotlight for bad-actor provisions as Senate process grinds forward
The industry has been trying to make a case this week the Clarity Act provides law enforcement strong tools to combat illicit finance involving cryptocurrency.
Google DeepMind CEO Says AGI Is Coming Fast: ‘We Don’t Have Long to Prepare’
The Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher says humanity is standing in the “foothills of the singularity.”
Coinbase to launch token-backed mortgage down payments this summer
A Coinbase-Better Home & Finance initiative will allow qualified borrowers to use Bitcoin and USDC as collateral for home loan down payments.
OCC chief says Democrats applying sole political pressure in World Liberty charter choice
The regulator rejected claims he’s doing President Trump’s bidding during a congressional hearing that also addressed the GENIUS Act stablecoin push.
‘Dr. Doom’-backed Atlas Capital CEO says bitcoin could crash 70% before reaching $500,000
Backed by economist Nouriel Roubini, a long-time anti-bitcoin advocate, and known as ‘Dr. Doom,’ the Atlas CEO, Reza Bundy, shot a short-term warning for bitcoin but stayed bullish in the long-term.
Strategy’s Michael Saylor Blames ‘Capital Rotation’ Into AI as Bitcoin Dives 13%
With Bitcoin falling hard this week and down nearly 50% from peak. Strategy’s Michael Saylor is pointing the finger at the AI boom.
Bitcoin bulls’ fate rests on $60K support as crypto erases $2T in market cap
Bitcoin continued “incredible” 2022 bear market repeat behavior as sellers kept control over BTC price rebound attempts.
Bybit joins Western Union’s new USDPT network as stablecoin expands distribution
The exchange integration gives Western Union’s dollar-pegged token access to crypto market liquidity as payment providers accelerate their adoption of stablecoins.
Crypto Billionaires Donate $9.4M to Farage’s Reform UK in Q1
Tether investor Christopher Harborne and BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo’s outspent Britain’s traditional political donors.
Bitcoin Miners Emerge as ‘Power Landlords’ of AI Boom—And Revenue Will Surge: Bernstein
Bernstein is bullish on Bitcoin miners as they increasingly power the AI boom, assigning “Outperform” ratings to TeraWulf and Cipher Digital.
Hyperliquid pulls back from record highs as Arthur Hayes exits position shy of $150 price target
The crypto veteran blamed macro risks and AI mania for taking profits, drawing backlash from traders for selling well below his recent bullish forecasts.
DOJ Task Force Freezes $3.8M in Illicit Crypto—With Help From Coinbase, SpaceX and Meta
Some of America’s biggest companies helped squash crypto fraud stemming from organized crime in Southeast Asia.
Fannie Mae-Backed Bitcoin Home Mortgages Are Finally Here, Coinbase Says
Coinbase said a Michigan couple closed on the first-ever conventional, Fannie Mae-backed home mortgage by pledging Bitcoin as collateral.
Crypto for Advisors: The crypto due diligence questions you forgot to ask
As stablecoins, shifting regulation and AI-enabled infrastructure mature, advisors should revisit three questions their crypto due diligence may no longer fully cover.
Saylor downplays Bitcoin slide as Strategy faces $11B paper loss
Strategy’s Bitcoin paper loss tops $11 billion as Saylor pointed to ETF outflows and AI infrastructure spending as factors pressuring BTC.
Why tokenization is an ETF-style market structure revolution
The current tokenization dialogue and pattern resemble ETFs’ early days, which ultimately transformed into a $10+ trillion market, Lie argues.
British Teen Sanctioned By Russia After Alleging Crypto Use to Evade Sanctions
The teenager’s research into Russia’s alleged illicit crypto flows appears to have prompted Moscow’s retaliation.
Not all Ethereum layer 2s are dying, but many general-purpose chains no longer have a reason to exist
In this week’s edition of The Protocol Newsletter, we’re looking at the state of the Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem.
Tom Lee’s $250,000 ether target: Here’s what math says about this crazy prediction
Bitmine’s chairman told a Paris conference ether would 50x from here on AI and corporate validators. Here’s how supply schedule, the ETH-to-bitcoin ratio history and the actual breakdown of staked ether look at those levels.
Apex, Archax join Goldman Sachs tokenized real estate fund project
Apex Group is providing fund services for a tokenized real estate fund using Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP platform.
Ripple-linked XRP sinks 7% to four-month lows
XRP fell another 7% after losing key support levels, with traders weighing growing institutional demand against one of the token’s weakest technical setups in months.