US House committee passes stablecoin-regulating STABLE Act April 3, 2025, 12:02 am
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2. The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a type of crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens. Related: Lawmaker alleges Trump wants to replace US dollar with his stablecoin Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers. This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available. Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025
DDoS attacks now a dominant means of waging political cyber-warfare April 2, 2025, 11:21 pm
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are outpacing many traditional cyber threats and are no longer just a tool but a “dominant geopolitical weapon,” according to network security firm Netscout.Global DDoS activity increased by 12.7% in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half, totaling almost 9 million attacks, according to the firm. A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal web traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic. The largest increases have been in Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions, with around 30% and 20% increases from the first half, respectively. Netscout reported that there were a total of 7.9 million DDoS attacks in the first half of 2024, with a combined total of 16.8 million for the full year, up almost 30% from the 13 million attacks the firm recorded in 2023. Attackers have been using the internet disruption tool to “exploit moments of national vulnerability to amplify chaos and erode trust in institutions,” the researchers said. The report described DDoS attacks as “precision-guided digital weapons” capable of disrupting infrastructure at critical moments, highlighting how they have been deployed during sociopolitical conflicts, elections, protests and policy disputes. Weekly DDoS statistics, 2024. Source: Netscout AI is supercharging DDoS attacks DDoS-for-hire services, including booters and stressors, are “more powerful than ever,” they added, as cyber criminals leverage AI and automation to bypass CAPTCHA, with automation “advancing toward capabilities such as behavior mimicry and real-time attack adjustments.” The researchers concluded that DDoS attacks “are no longer just about raw bandwidth,” adding that they are “adaptive, persistent, and deeply embedded in modern cyber and geopolitical conflicts.” “The shift to high-
Elon Musk’s Neuralink seeks patients globally to try its brain chips April 2, 2025, 10:53 pm
Elon Musk’s computer-chip brain implant company Neuralink is seeking patients all around the world to trial its device that allows one’s thoughts to control a computer.Neuralink is looking for people with quadriplegia — those who are not able to use their arms or legs — to sign up for a clinical trial, it said in an April 2 post on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk. As of January, Neuralink has said that three patients have been implanted with a device. All are quadriplegic and are testing a small brain implant that tracks neural activity to control a computer or smartphone as part of a clinical trial called the Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, or PRIME study. Neuralink is one of several companies and academic institutions developing and testing so-called brain-computer interfaces, which vary from small wire-like implants as part of clinical trials to non-invasive devices akin to a hat. Source: Neuralink Neuralink’s website says its clinical PRIME study, which will take around six years, is looking for quadriplegics with spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to use their thoughts to control a computer. Musk also heads vehicle maker Tesla and is the Trump administration's government cost-cutting czar. He has said he wants Neuralink to move beyond just allowing humans to operate computers by thinking and wants to help “give people superpowers.” First Neuralink patient reports no side effects after a yearNoland Arbaugh, Neuralink's first patient, said in a March 28 X post that he’s “had no negative side effects, neither physically nor psychologically” in the year after receiving his brain implant. Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, demoed his brain chip about a year ago by controlling a computer cursor to play chess and surf the web. https://t.co/OMIeGGjYtG — Neuralink (@neuralink) March 20, 2024Arbaugh said he’s now using his brain chip “for all sorts of things” and guessed he’s u
‘National emergency’ as Trump’s tariffs dent crypto prices April 2, 2025, 9:45 pm
Crypto markets dipped after US President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency and sweeping tariffs on all countries as part of his latest salvo in the ongoing trade war. The Trump administration has hit all countries with a 10% tariff starting April 5, with some countries facing even larger rates, such as China facing a 34% tariff, the European Union 20%, and Japan 24%. During an April 2 speech in the Rose Garden at the White House, Trump said the US is charging countries “approximately half of what they are and have been charging us.” 🚨 @POTUS signs an Executive Order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. It's LIBERATION DAY in America! pic.twitter.com/p7UnfE617B — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 2, 2025The crypto market briefly went up at the news of a 10% sweeping tariff, but once the full scope became known, it dipped with bleeding across the board. Bitcoin (BTC) had been staging a rally, reaching a session high at $88,500 but dropped 2.6% back to around $82,876. Meanwhile, CoinGecko data shows Ether (ETH) dropped over 6% from $1,934 to $1,797 following the tariff announcements and the total crypto market cap dropped 5.3% to $2.7 trillion. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures market sentiment for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, returned a score of 25, classed as extreme fear, in its latest April 2 update. However, prices have clawed back some losses since. Bitcoin has recovered 0.8% to $83,205. While Ether regained 1.2% to take back $1,810. The crypto Fear & Greed Index score has returned an average rating of fear for the last week but has now dipped to extreme fear. Source: Alternative.me Stock markets didn't fare much better; trading resource The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 2 post to X that the stock market index S&P 500 erased over $2 trillion in market cap, working out to be roughly $125 billion per minute. Trump tariffs could bring certainty
Former New York governor advised OKX over $505M federal probe: Report April 2, 2025, 7:56 pm
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX reportedly hired former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to advise it over the federal probe that resulted in the firm pleading guilty to several violations and agreeing to pay $505 million in fines and penalties.Cuomo, a New York-registered attorney, advised OKX on legal issues stemming from the probe sometime after August 2021 when he resigned as New York overnor, Bloomberg reported on April 2, citing people familiar with the matter. “He spoke with company executives regularly and counseled them on how to respond to the criminal investigation,” Bloomberg said. The Seychelles-based firm pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in violation of US Anti-Money Laundering laws on Feb. 24 and agreed to pay $84 million worth of penalties while forfeiting $421 million worth of fees earned from mostly institutional clients. The breaches occurred from 2018 to 2024 despite OKX having an official policy preventing US persons from transacting on its crypto exchange since 2017, the Department of Justice noted at the time. A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, told Bloomberg that Cuomo has been providing private legal services representing individuals and corporations on a variety of matters since resigning as New York governor. “He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency and routinely recommends former colleagues for positions,” Azzopardi added. OKX reportedly wasn’t willing to comment on its relationships with outside firms. Cuomo also influenced OKX to make executive appointments: BloombergCuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also advised OKX to appoint his friend US Attorney Linda Lacewell to OKX’s board of directors, Bloomberg said. Lacewell, a former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, was added to the board in 2024 and was named OKX’s new chief legal officer on April 1, according to a recent company statement. Source: Linda Lacewell Related: New
EY updates privacy L2 as nixed Tornado Cash sanctions ease fears April 2, 2025, 7:00 pm
Big Four accounting firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young, has changed its enterprise-focused Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Nightfall to a zero-knowledge rollup design as it says corporate clients are more comfortable with privacy solutions with easing US sanctions.EY said in an April 2 announcement that Nightfall’s new source code, “Nightfall_4,” simplifies the network’s architecture and offers near-instant transaction finality on Ethereum while making it more accessible to users than its previous optimistic rollup-based version. EY’s global blockchain leader, Paul Brody, told Cointelegraph that switching to a ZK-rollup model “means instant finality, but it also makes operations simpler since you don’t need a challenger node to secure the network,” which verifies the correctness of transactions. The move away from optimistic rollups means Nightfall users won’t need to challenge potentially incorrect transactions on Ethereum and wait out the challenging period, leading to faster transaction finality. No such feature is present with zero-knowledge rollups, meaning that a transaction becomes final as soon as it is added into a Nightfall block, EY said. It is the fourth major update to Nightfall since EY launched the business-focused Ethereum layer 2 in 2019. Nightfall enables the firm’s business partners to transfer tokens privately using Ethereum’s security while being cheaper than the base network. It also uses a technology that binds a verified identity to a public key through digital signatures to try to stem counterparty risk. Nixed Tornado Cash sanctions “helped people feel comfortable”Brody said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions on the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash “had a chilling effect on legitimate business user interest.” “Even though we long ago took steps to make Nightfall unattractive to bad actors, since it cannot be used anonymously, the removal of OFAC sanct
Trump imposes 10% tariff on all countries, reciprocal levies on trading partners April 2, 2025, 6:34 pm
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.The reciprocal levies on will be approximately half of what trading partners charge for US imports, Trump said. For example, China currently has a tariff of 67% on US imports, so US reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods will be 34%. Trump also announced a standard 25% tariff on all automobile imports. Trump told the media that tariffs would return the country to economic prosperity seen in previous centuries: “From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation. The United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been. So wealthy, in fact, that in the 1880s, they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting.”“Then, in 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying,” Trump said. Full breakdown of reciprocal tariffs by country. Source: Cointelegraph Trump presented the tariffs through the lens of economic protectionism and hinted at returning to the economic policies of the 19th century by using them to replace the income tax. Related: Bitcoin rally to $88.5K obliterates bears as spot volumes soar — Will a tariff war stop the party? Trump proposes eliminating federal income tax and replacing it with tariff revenueTrump proposed the idea of abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and funding the federal government exclusively through trade tariffs while still on the campaign trail in October 2024. According to accounting automation company Dancing Numbers, Trump's plan could save each American taxpayer $134,809-$325,561 in taxes throughout their lives. US President Donald Trump addresses the media about reciprocal trade tariffs at the April 2 press event. Source: Fox 4 Dallas The higher range of the tax savings estimate will only occur if other w
US lawmakers press SEC for info about Trump family-backed crypto firm April 2, 2025, 6:15 pm
Two Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate and House of Representatives have called on acting Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mark Uyeda to preserve information regarding World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm backed by President Donald Trump’s family.In an April 2 letter, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Maxine Waters — ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, respectively — asked Uyeda to provide information to Congress based on Trump’s ties to World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The two lawmakers suggested the SEC may be being influenced by the firm, and “this conflict of interest may be interfering with its mission to protect investors and maintain fair and orderly markets.” “The Trump family’s financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration’s oversight — or lack thereof — of the cryptocurrency industry, creating an obvious incentive for the Trump Administration to direct federal agencies, including the SEC, to take positions favorable to cryptocurrency interests that directly benefit the President's family,” said the letter. April 2 letter to acting SEC chair Mark Uyeda. Source: House Financial Services Committee The letter came roughly a week after WLFI announced it had launched a stablecoin, USD1, on the BNB Chain and Ethereum blockchain. However, since January, Trump has followed through with several crypto policies and projects with potential conflicts of interest, including plans to establish a national cryptocurrency stockpile and the launch of a TRUMP memecoin. Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — Or does it? According to Warren and Waters, Americans deserved transparency about Trump’s crypto ventures and how they could potentially influence policy at the SEC, a financial regulatory agency largely intended to be independent
Here’s what happened in crypto today April 2, 2025, 6:00 pm
Today in crypto, First Digital’s stablecoin depegged after Justin Sun’s claims of insolvency. Meanwhile, VanEck became the first company to propose a potential BNB exchange-traded fund in the United States and stablecoin issuer Circle filed for a public listing on Wall Street. FDUSD stablecoin depegs following insolvency claims by Justin SunThe First Digital US dollar-pegged stablecoin FDUSD depegged on April 2 following claims of insolvency from Tron network founder Justin Sun, who said that the issuer of the tokenized fiat equivalent, First Digital, is insolvent. First Digital responded to the claims by assuring users they are completely solvent and said that FDUSD is still fully backed and redeemable with the US dollar on a 1:1 basis. The firm also said that the ongoing dispute is with TrueUSD (TUSD), another stablecoin. The firm wrote in an April 2 X post: "Every dollar backing FDUSD is completely secure, safe, and accounted for with US-backed Treasury Bills. The exact ISIN numbers of all of the reserves of FDUSD are set out in our attestation report and clearly accounted for."First Digital also indicated they would be taking legal action against Sun for making the claims on social media. "This is a typical Justin Sun smear campaign to try to attack a competitor to his business," spokespeople for First Digital wrote. FDUSD loses dollar peg: Source: CoinMarketCap VanEck eyes BNB ETF with latest Delaware trust filingInvestment company VanEck filed to register a Delaware trust company for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking Binance-linked BNB cryptocurrency. VanEck, on March 31, registered a new entity under the name VanEck BNB ETF in Delaware, according to public records on the official Delaware state website. VanEck BNB ETF trust registration in Delaware. Source: Delaware.gov In filing 10148820, the entity is registered as a trust corporate service company in Delaware, hinting at a potential spot BNB (BNB) ETF in the United States. Circle files for Initial Public Offering planned for AprilU
Curve Finance clocks $35B trading volume in Q1 2025 April 2, 2025, 5:54 pm
Curve Finance, a decentralized lending protocol and exchange, notched record-breaking trading volumes of nearly $35 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a spokesperson for the protocol told Cointelegraph. Trading volumes increased more than 13% from the first quarter of 2024, largely due to a surge in transactions, from around 1.8 million to some 5.5 million in Q1 2025, Curve said. The strong Q1 volumes come amid overall declines in the cryptocurrency market, with the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropping by more than 20% in the year-to-date as of March 31, according to data from CoinGecko. Curve’s total value locked (TVL) over time. Source: DefiLlama Related: Curve Finance launches ‘Savings crvUSD’ yield-bearing stablecoin Changing DeFi LandscapeLaunched in 2020, Curve has taken numerous steps in the past year to keep pace with the changing decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. In June 2024, Curve adopted crvUSD, its stablecoin, for fee distribution to tokenholders, replacing an older model that paid holders in shares of the 3crv liquidity pool. In November, Curve partnered with Elixir, a blockchain network, to help onboard BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, to DeFi. By the end of 2025, Curve plans to consolidate its lending markets into a single user interface and provide borrowers with more time to close positions before they are liquidated, it told Cointelegraph. Curve founder Michael Egorov said in March that he expects many decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to evolve into bespoke platforms for stablecoins pegged to various currency denominations. "Exchanges between stablecoins of different denominations like the euro, US dollar, and others are not yet properly solved. How to provide liquidity without losing money, but while earning a lot of money, is kind of an open question that I think will be solved soon,” Egorov said. Despite the rise in transactions, the total value locked (TVL) on Curve’s platform is